Worldwide tuberculosis deaths have eclipsed deaths attributed to HIV/AIDS, the World Health Organization reported this week.
"The good news is that TB intervention has saved some 43 million lives since 2000," Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO TB program,
told Reuters.
However, because most cases of TB — an airborne disease — can be successfully treated, the death rate has remained "unacceptably high" in the eyes of the researchers, he said.
"Investments in TB are a fraction of the amount that is invested in HIV," said Raviglione. "That shows a lack of consideration for what this disease is, how many people it kills and the fact that it is curable."
In 2014 alone, 1.1 million people died of TB, while HIV/AIDS killed 1.2 million people.
Tuberculosis is largely concentrated in India, Indonesia, Russia, and China, while much of the world's HIV/AIDS infections are concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa.
In 2014, global investment in TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment was roughly $6.6 billion, while about $21.7 billion was invested in HIV/AIDS.
"More people are dying from TB than HIV any way you count it," said Eric Goosby, a former U.S. government global AIDS coordinator who is now a U.N. special envoy on tuberculosis,
according to The Wall Street Journal. "The reason is because of the difference in investment. TB has continued to kill people, but we have not responded to it with resources."
Altogether, experts say there's a $1.4 billion gap in the amount of funding needed for TB interventions in 2015.