TABLE 1.

Common global diseases caused by bacterial infection and their burdens of disease and mortality^a

Disease(s)	Causative bacterial agent(s)	Burden of disease (DALY), millions	Annual deaths, millions	Annual cases, millions	Conventional methods of diagnosis	Diagnosis time critical?	Spread prevention critical?	Reference(s)
Lower respiratory tract infections (e.g., pneumonia)	Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae	94.5	4.2	430	Physical examination, chest X-ray, sputum and blood cultures, PCR	No	No	11
Diarrheal diseases	Shigellae, Campylobacter, salmonellae, Escherichia coli O157:H7	72.8	2.1	4,620	Microbiology (culture on Gram-negative-selective media), PCR, ELISA, particle agglutination assay	Can be	Yes	12, 13
TB	Mycobacterium tuberculosis	34.2	1.5	7.8	Chest X-ray, blood test, Mantoux TST, sputum smear and culture, staining and microscopy	No	Yes	14
Meningitis	Neisseria meningitidis, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Escherichia coli	11.4	0.34	0.7	Lumbar puncture, blood cultures, PCR	Yes	No	15
Sexually transmitted infections (excluding HIV)	Treponema pallidum (syphilis), Chlamydia trachomatis (chlamydia), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (gonorrhea)	10.4	0.13	222	Urethral/vaginal swab and culture, Gram staining and microscopy, immunoassay, particle agglutination assay	No	Yes	16, 17

^aAbbreviations: DALY, disability-adjusted life years (i.e., number of years lost due to disease); ELISA, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; TB, tuberculosis; TST, tuberculin skin test; HIV, human immunodeficiency virus.