8.8 million

Number of new cases of tuberculosis in 2010, down from a high of 9 million in 2005, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) — marking the first drop in new infections worldwide. Deaths from TB also fell to 1.4 million last year, from 1.8 million deaths in 2003. Efforts to find and treat people with TB have paid off, with many countries, including Brazil, Cambodia and Uganda, slashing mortality rates over the last two decades. China has made substantial progress — its TB death rates have dropped nearly 80% from 1990 to 2010. But a $1 billion shortfall in 2012 funding to fight TB jeopardizes these advances, especially as drug-resistant forms of the disease spread, the WHO said. Only 16% of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis received treatment in 2010. [via WHO]