title: Increased tuberculosis burden due to demographic transition in Korea from 2001 to 2010.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Notified tuberculosis (TB) cases in Korea have not decreased over the last decade (2001-2010).
  
  
  METHODS
  To clarify the reasons, we analyzed an annual report on notified tuberculosis patients and age-specific population drift in Korea.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared to the age-specific notified TB cases between 2001 and 2010, distinctive features in notified TB cases and new cases increased markedly in people aged 45-54 years and in patients over 65 years old, whereas those between 15-34 years in 2010 decreased drastically. In particular, notified TB individuals over 65 years old occupied 29.6% of the cases in 2010, which was 1.5 times higher than that in 2001. The main reason not to decrease in notified TB patients for the last decade (2001-2010) was due to the increasing elderly population as well as the aging of baby boomers, which have a higher risk of TB development.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Korea needs to pay attention to the older population in order to successfully decrease the burden of TB in the future.
authors.affiliation: Korean Institute of Tuberculosis, Cheongwon, Korea.
authors.forename: Young Kil
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Yoon-Sung
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Kyoung In
authors.initials: KI
authors.lastname: Na
authors.forename: En Hi
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Sang-Sook
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Hee Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Aging; Population Dynamics; Tuberculosis