According to a new report by the World Health Organisation, India topped the list of seven countries, accounting for 64 per cent of the 10.4 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases worldwide in 2016.
The Global TB Report 2017 released by the WHO said that India was followed by Indonesia, China, Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa.
The report said, an estimated 1.7 million people died from TB in 2016, including nearly 400,000 people who were co-infected with HIV, recording a drop by 4 per cent as compared to 2015.
Also, India along with China and the Russia accounted for almost of half of the 490,000, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases registered in 2016.
The report pointed out that though global efforts to combat tuberculosis have saved an estimated 53 million lives since 2000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 37 percent, the latest picture is grim as TB remains the top infectious killer in 2016.
