A recent report from the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that in 2023, tuberculosis (TB) became the main cause of death from infectious diseases, taking over from COVID-19. This highlights that getting rid of TB worldwide is still a big challenge. Last year, 8.2 million people were diagnosed with TB, the highest number since WHO began keeping track in 1995, and more than 7.5 million cases in 2022. This shows that, although there has been some progress, completely ending TB is still a tough goal.

Director General of WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed frustration over the continued toll of TB, stating, "The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it, and treat it."

TB cases and death rates: What are the numbers?

The number of people dying from TB went down a little, from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million in 2023. However, the total number of people getting sick with TB went up slightly to around 10.8 million. WHO says that we are still behind in our goals to reduce TB worldwide, and a lot more effort is needed to meet the targets set for 2027.

This is noticed that most TB cases are found in low- and middle-income countries, which carry 98% of the world's TB cases. These countries have serious financial problems and don’t have enough funds to fight against TB properly.

The report also showed out worries about a type of TB called multidrug-resistant TB. This kind of TB is a major and critical health problem because it does not respond to regular antibiotics, making it much harder and problematic to treat. Treating it takes longer and needs special, more complicated medicines.

In 2023, there were about 2.7 million TB cases that weren’t officially reported, which is better than the 4 million unreported cases during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. However, WHO still warns that TB is a big danger, especially in countries that don’t have enough healthcare resources and money to fight it effectively.