TB Epidemiology in the Western Pacific Region
TB burden
There were an estimated 2.1 million prevalent TB cases in the Region in 2008, of which 1.9 million were incident cases, including 0.9 million new smear-positive cases. The estimated number of incident cases accounted for 21% of the global burden of TB. China, the Philippines, Viet Nam and Cambodia accounted for 93% of the total estimated incident cases in the Region.
Case notification and trends
The Region accounted for about 1.4 million cases of all forms of TB notified in 2008, corresponding to 24% of the total cases notified globally. There were about 0.7 million new sputum smear positive cases notified, corresponding to 25% of the global smear-positive cases notified. The largest number of smear-positive cases were notified from China (463 000), followed by the Philippines (85 000) and Viet Nam (53 000). Since 2005, the notification rates for all forms of TB and new sputum smear-positive TB have remained stable in the Region.
Progress towards 2010 regional goal
The 2010 Regional goal was to halve the TB prevalence and mortality rates from those of the year 2000. Between 2000 and 2008, the TB prevalence rate is estimated to have declined by 46% at a rate of -7.5% per year and the mortality rate by 42% at a rate of -6.6% per year. At the current rates of decline, the prevalence will drop from 224 to 103 per 100 000 population by 2010 and the mortality from 26 to 13 per 100 000 population.
