PolitiFact Examines Global Mortality Data For HIV, TB

PolitiFact: Does tuberculosis top HIV/AIDS as the deadlier disease?
“…[In a January 7 opinion piece in The Hill, Harvard student Nick] Seymour said tuberculosis is now a bigger killer than HIV/AIDS. Numbers from the United Nations and the World Health Organization support that, but another equally credible source, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said the death tolls are about the same. The data’s not good enough for highly precise estimates. … The one undisputed point is that death rates are falling faster for HIV/AIDS than for TB. Both sets of data back that up. In that respect, TB is the more threatening infectious disease because the world is having a harder time getting ahead of it. … On balance, we rate this statement Half True” (Greenberg, 1/11).

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