Because notifications of tuberculosis are so incomplete from many parts of the world, they cannot be used reliably to estimate the incidence of tuberculosis in the world. To make such estimates is not an easy task, but the World Health Organization has done its best to arrive at plausible estimates (see previous slide).
It is estimated that, in 2007, approximately 9 million new cases of tuberculosis emerged in the world. Of these, about half were estimated to be sputum smear-positive cases. The majority of cases occurred in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific (where the majority of the world population lives). The incidence rates were estimated to be highest in Africa and in Southeast Asia.
