Context: Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, and global TB targets have either been missed or remain. The net reduction from 2015 to 2022 was 8.7%, far from the WHO End TB Strategy milestone of a 50% reduction by 2025 according to WHO’s Global TB Report 2023.
Key findings of the report
- In 2022, the global number of new TB diagnoses reached 7.5 million, marking the highest figure since the World Health Organization (WHO) initiated its global TB monitoring efforts in 1995. This exceeded the pre-COVID baseline and the previous historical peak of 7.1 million cases in 2019, showing a significant increase from the 5.8 million cases reported in 2020 and 6.4 million in 2021.
- India, Indonesia and the Philippines, which collectively accounted for nearly 60% of the reduction in the number of people newly diagnosed with TB in 2020 and 2021, recovered to above 2019 levels in 2022.
- TB caused an estimated 1.30 million deaths in 2022, again almost back to the level of 2019. COVID-related disruptions are estimated to have resulted in almost half a million excess deaths from TB in the three years 2020–2022.
- Treatment success rates have improved to 88% for people treated for drug-susceptible TB and 63% for people with Multidrug- and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB).
- The net reduction in the global number of deaths caused by TB from 2015 to 2022 was 19%, far from the WHO.
- Thirty high TB burden countries accounted for 87% of the world’s TB cases in 2022 and two-thirds of the global total was in eight countries: India (27%), Indonesia (10%), China (7.1%), the Philippines (7.0%), Pakistan (5.7%), Nigeria (4.5%), Bangladesh (3.6%) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3.0%).
- In 2022, 55% of people who developed TB were men, 33% were women and 12% were children (aged 0–14 years).
About global tuberculosis (TB) report
- WHO has published a global tuberculosis (TB) report every year since 1997.
- The report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic, and of progress in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the disease at global, regional and country levels.
About Tuberculosis
- It is an airborne communicable disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Typically the bacteria grow in the body where oxygen and blood are in high amounts. As a result, 80% of TB cases are pulmonary which infect the lungs and 20% of cases are extra-pulmonary which infect the brain, uterus, stomach, mouth, kidneys and bones.
- Mode of transmission: Airborne- through coughing, sneezing or spitting.
- High-risk groups: People weak immunity like those infected with HIV, Under-nutrition, Diabetes, Smoking and Alcohol consumption.
