The spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis may result in 75 million deaths by 2050 , experts have declared . It could also cost the global economy a cumulative $ 16.7 trillion ( £15 trillion ) - the equivalent of the European Union 's annual output . The comments have come from a UK Parliamentary group which focuses on TB . They follow a warning from the World Health Organisation which said last year that multidrug-resistant TB was at 'crisis levels ' , with about 480,000 new cases in 2013 . X-ray of tuberculosis calcification caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis Bacteria . It is a man-made problem caused by regular TB patients given the wrong medicines or doses , or failing to complete their treatment , which is highly toxic and can take up two years . The fight against TB , the world 's second deadliest infectious disease after HIV , is also hampered by a lack of an effective vaccine , the APPG TB said . The only TB vaccine , BCG , protects some children from severe forms of TB - including one that affects the brain - but is unreliable in preventing TB in the lung , which is the most common form of the disease . TB , which spreads through the coughs and sneezes of an infected person , killed 1.5 million people worldwide in 2013 , according to the WHO . Yesterday it warned that if left untackled , drug-resistant TB superbugs threaten to shrink the world economy by 0.63 percent annually . As a result , governments must do more to improve research and cooperation , the UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Tuberculosis ( APPG TB ) , said . The problem stems from the fact that bacteria that cause TB can develop resistance to drugs used to cure the disease . Multidrug-resistant TB fails to respond to at least isoniazid and rifampicin , the two most powerful anti-TB drugs , according to the World Health Organization ( WHO ) . The World Health Organisation warned last year that multidrug-resistant TB ( pictured ) was at 'crisis levels ' , with about 480,000 new cases in 2013 . The UK parliamentary group 's cost projections are based on a scenario in which an additional 40 per cent of all TB cases are resistant to first-line drugs , leading to a doubling of the infection rate . 'The rising global burden of multidrug-resistant TB and other drug-resistant infections will come at a human and economic cost which the global community simply can not afford to ignore ' , economist Jim O'Neill said in a statement . Mr O'Neill , a former chief at investment bank Goldman Sachs , was appointed last year by British Prime Minister David Cameron to head a review into antimicrobial resistance . The group urged governments to set up a research and development fund , target investments into basic research and increase support for bilateral TB programs . 'We need better tools to deal with this new threat , but since TB primarily affects the poorest and most vulnerable in society , there is little commercial incentive to develop new drugs , ' said Nick Herbert , co-chairman of the APPG TB .
Could also cost the global economy a cumulative $ 16.7 trillion ( £ ##3 trillion ) Comments have come from UK malaria research which focuses on malaria . malaria Health Organisation reported last year that multidrug - resistant malaria was at ' crisis levels ' - and exacerbated by that there is no vaccine .