Final answer:
Tuberculosis (TB) is the infectious disease that ranks second to HIV/AIDS in annual global deaths, with millions of new cases each year and substantial fatalities (2).
Step-by-step explanation:
The infectious disease that is second only to HIV/AIDS in terms of deaths caused each year is tuberculosis (TB). Tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis and affects millions of people worldwide. Despite the low infection rates in the United States, it's estimated that about one-third of the world's population is infected with TB, leading to millions of new cases and a significant number of deaths annually. In comparison, malaria also causes a high number of deaths each year, especially among children in tropical and subtropical regions, but it has not surpassed tuberculosis in terms of annual mortality.
The infectious disease that is second only to HIV/AIDS in terms of deaths caused each year is Tuberculosis (TB). While diseases like Malaria and Influenza also cause significant deaths each year, TB is responsible for 1.5 million deaths worldwide in 2014, making it the second deadliest infectious disease.