Sherrod Brown: “I remember growing up in Mansfield, Ohio, in the 1950s and 1960s; and I remember that tuberculosis clinic was closed…”

“I remember growing up in Mansfield, Ohio, in the 1950s and 1960s; and I remember that tuberculosis clinic was closed there because Americans realized that tuberculosis was not really much of a problem in the United States of the 1960s or 1970s or 1980s. People are surprised in this country, Members of Congress are surprised, citizens are surprised, to learn that tuberculosis in 1999 killed 2 million people around the world. It killed more people in 1999 around the world than in any year in history. Tuberculosis is one of the greatest infectious disease killers of adults worldwide, killing someone every 15 seconds. It is the biggest killer of young women around the world. It is the biggest killer of people with HIV/AIDS. Of the deaths from AIDS in Africa, literally one-third of those deaths actually are from tuberculosis. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world's population of the 6 billion people in the world, some 2 billion are infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, including an estimated 10 to 15 million people in the United States.”