Infectious diseases

Major infectious diseases by the numbers

Knowing what we are up against is the first step in setting a course of action. Explore the prevalence of major infectious diseases below.

Cervical cancer

• More than 99% of all cervical cancers are caused by a persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection⁶
• Women living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are 6 times more likely to develop cervical cancer⁷
• About 85% of deaths from cervical cancer are in low to middle-income families⁸

HIV

• There are 39 million living with HIV globally in 2022 and 1.3 million new infections worldwide⁹

Hepatitis B virus (HBV)

• There are 296 million living with HBV¹⁰

Tuberculosis (TB)

• About 10.6 million fell ill to TB worldwide in 2022, including 1.3 million children¹¹
• There were also 1.3 million TB-related deaths¹¹

Hepatitis E virus (HEV)

• There are 20 million new HEV cases annually, with 70,000 fatalities and 3,000 stillbirths¹²

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs)

• There are 1 million new STIs daily¹³
• About 374 million new infections of gonorrhoea, syphilis, trichomoniasis, or chlamydia annually¹³

Dengue

• About half of the world’s population is now at risk¹⁴
• There are up to 390 million infections and 96 million clinical manifestations annually¹⁴

Today, an estimated 90% of the 354 million people worldwide living with hepatitis B virus (HBV) and/or hepatitis C virus (HCV) are unaware of their status.¹⁵ If left undiagnosed and untreated, these infections may progress to severe diseases such as cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and end-stage liver failure.

Or, it may become the underlying cause of another, more serious illness, such as human papillomavirus (HPV) which has been linked to a number of cancers including cervical cancer in women, as well as being the cause of various cancers in men.

Reliable diagnostics help detect and monitor for silent infections, reducing the spread of infection and improving disease and patient management.

Drug resistance

Prevention of the spread of disease becomes doubly important at a time when the world faces the growing threat of drug resistance. Unregulated access and inappropriate use of pharmaceuticals have led to growing rates of drug resistance, resulting in tens of thousands of avoidable deaths every year.¹⁶ An estimated 70% of the two million hospital infections in the USA are resistant to at least one antibiotic.¹⁷ Control over multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and resistance to antiretrovirals for HIV are just two of the diseases at risk from resistance.

Emerging diseases

On 30 January 2020, WHO declared the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Just a few weeks later on 11 March, WHO characterised COVID-19 as a pandemic.¹⁸

COVID-19 is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and has now disrupted the lives of billions and overwhelmed many healthcare systems. Healthcare professionals and regulatory authorities have recognised that accurate, high-throughput and high-quality diagnostic testing is vital to containing the transmission of COVID-19.

Zika virus

By mid-2016, the Zika virus disease epidemic spread rapidly to thousands of people in Puerto Rico.¹⁹ Zika virus can be transmitted through infected mosquitoes, mother-to-child during pregnancy, sexual intercourse, donor blood transfusion and organ transplantation. The virus can cause birth defects in newborns, including microcephaly. In adults, Zika can cause neurological complications.²⁰

West Africa Ebola outbreak

From 2014 to 2016, the world witnessed the largest Ebola virus disease outbreak to date. After starting in Guinea, the virus quickly spread to thousands in the surrounding areas of West Africa. Over the course of the epidemic, seven other countries outside of West Africa reported cases of Ebola including the United Kingdom and United States. Ultimately, there were 28,652 cases and 11,325 deaths.²¹

Parasitic infection in the blood

Babesiosis is a tick-borne illness from the Babesia parasite that leads to infection and destruction of red blood cells. The disease can be transmitted directly through tick bites, blood transfusion or from mother to fetus during pregnancy.²²

Looking ahead

With the assistance of dependable diagnostic solutions and continuous enhancement of digital solutions, clinicians need to be able to identify the greatest threats to health and design an appropriate response. This may mean localised prevention, individual treatment post-infection, or contributing to widespread policy change at national or international levels.

Roche has a proud history of delivering advanced testing that delivers increasingly precise information to help save lives. Together, we can leverage diagnostics to continue improving public health and the care of patients everywhere. Together, we can fight to eradicate infectious diseases globally.