Sign of the times: Tuberculosis

Lovely, huh? TB is back. For me, this is a nice illustration of the fact that we either progress or regress as a society. There is no such word as "gress."

So, bring this creepy Top 10 list up at your office holiday party and see how many people remain in the conversation circle when you're done.

From the World Health Organization:

10 - Every 20 seconds, someone in the world dies of TB.
9 - Two billion people, or about one-third of the world's population, are infected with the bacteria that causes TB.
8 - About one out of every 10 of those people will develop active TB.
7 - If left untreated, a person sick with TB in their lungs can infect 10 to 15 people a year.
6 - TB is the leading infectious killer of people living with HIV/AIDs in the world.
5 - Some 9.2 million new cases of tuberculosis occurred worldwide in 2006, up nearly 40 percent from 1990, due mostly to population growth.
4 - India had the highest number of new absolute cases, followed by China, Indonesia, South Africa and Nigeria.
3 - Just 22 countries account for 80 percent of the worldwide cases of TB. The disease is most prevalent in developing countries.
2 - Multidrug-resistant TB, a form of TB that does not respond to the usual drugs and must be treated with special drugs, has proliferated in recent years and causes about 130,000 deaths annually.

And the number one creepiest fact about TB in 2008:

- An even more extreme form of TB, known as XDR-TB, is virtually uncurable. Cases have appeared around the world.