TB is one the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. It kills more people than HIV and malaria combined. For the first time in over a decade, deaths had increased.
Last year in Kenya 21,000 people died of TB, four times the number of those who have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic began.
The number of deaths from TB is the equivalent of two bus crashes in Kenya every day.
Left untreated, TB kills about half of those affected. Someone with active TB can infect five to 15 others through close contact over the course of a year.
Kenya is one of the 30 countries with the majority (at least 83%) of cases.
Last year, around 140,000 people in Kenya were estimated to have TB.
Nearly half of people with TB in Kenya last year were likely to have missed out on diagnosis and treatment.
One concern is lack of diagnosis in children; two-thirds of cases in those under 15 are missed
Less than half of Kenya’s plan to tackle TB has adequate funding.
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