The number of new cases of tuberculosis in the world each year is falling for the first time in at least two decades, marking a long-sought turning point for the globe’s second-biggest infectious killer.

A lung infection that can spread to virtually any organ, TB has afflicted people for at least 15,000 years. Last year, it killed 1.4 million people. Among infectious diseases, only AIDS took a larger toll.
Tuberculosis has always been an infection closely linked to poverty, but its spread saw an unexpected boost 25 years ago with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic. People infected with HIV are 30 times more likely to develop TB than those who are not, and one-quarter of those who died from TB last year had the AIDS virus.

The downturn in new cases, announced Tuesday in Washington by World Health Organization epidemiologists, began in 2006 but wasn’t detected until this year, when new data from China, India and 17 African countries became available. That allowed the revision of global case estimates — and ultimately of the disease’s entire trend.
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Number of new TB cases worldwide falls for the first time in decades – Washington Post