The Burden of TB in Africa

As of 2016, Africa’s 54 countries are home to approximately 1 billion people, constituting about 16% of the 7.4 billion people in the world. Although it has abundant natural resources and is showing signs of economic growth, Africa remains the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped continent.

2013). Worse still, Africa currently carries the highest burden of TB (28% of the world’s cases in 2014) relative to its population (281 per 100,000 population), which is more than double the global average of 133 per 100,000 population (WHO 2015c). This situation is further worsened by the lack of surveillance and control measures to control BTB in the majority of the African countries (Cosivi et al. 1998; Thoen et al. 2009, 2010).

Overall, pertinent questions and key issues have yet to be addressed when BTB and zTB are considered in Africa (Thoen et al. 2010; El Idrissi and Parker 2012; Olea-Popelka et al. 2016). These include a lack of:

1. An estimate of the prevalence of BTB in most African countries

2. The burden of the disease in human populations at risk of infection

3. Optimal methods to document human-to-human transmission of the disease after possible zoonotic infection in both rural and urban settings

4. An understanding of the molecular epidemiology of BTB (cattle) and zTB (cattle and humans) for the purpose of developing adequate prevention and control strategies.

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