Tuberculosis (TB) has once again resurged as the leading infectious disease killer of 2023, surpassing COVID-19, following a comprehensive report released today by the World Health Organization (WHO) revealing that a total of 1.25 million people died from TB in 2023, including 161,000 people with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).
The Global Tuberculosis Report 2024 factsheet released today showed a notable increase from 7.5 million in 2022 to approximately 8.2 million people newly diagnosed with TB in 2023; the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995.
While the report stated that the total number of people falling ill with TB rose to an estimated 10.8 million in 2023, only 44 per cent of the 400,000 people with Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) were diagnosed and assessed for treatment in 2023, indicating that drug-resistant TB remains a public health crisis and a health security threat.
Although tuberculosis is preventable and curable, it is a serious infectious disease caused by bacteria that mainly affects the lungs and can spread when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or sings, releasing tiny droplets of germs into the air.
WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it is an outrage to know that TB still kills and sickens so many people when the tools to prevent it, detect it, and treat it are available. “WHO urges all countries to make good on the concrete commitments they have made to expand the use of those tools and to end TB,” he added.
The factsheet also reported that global funding for TB prevention and care decreased in 2023 and remains far below target, with only 26 per cent of the global annual funding target available in 2023, leaving low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which bear 98 per cent of the TB burden, to face significant funding shortages.
For the first time, the report provides estimates on the percentage of TB-affected households that face catastrophic costs exceeding 20 per cent of annual household income to access TB diagnosis and treatment in all LMICs.
According to the report, a significant number of new TB cases are driven by five major risk factors, including undernutrition, HIV infection, alcohol use disorders, smoking, and diabetes. “Tackling these issues, along with critical determinants like poverty and GDP per capita, requires coordinated multisectoral action,” it read.
Director of WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Programme Dr. Tereza Kasaeva said the report shows confrontation with a multitude of formidable challenges such as funding shortfalls, catastrophic financial burdens on those affected, climate change, conflict, migration and displacement, pandemics, and drug-resistant tuberculosis.
“It is imperative that we unite across all sectors and stakeholders to confront these pressing issues and ramp up our efforts,” he said.
WHO reports that the 2024 global TB report highlights mixed progress and calls on governments, global partners, and donors to urgently translate the commitments made during the 2023 United Nations (UN) High-Level Meeting on TB into tangible actions.
