World Tuberculosis Day is observed annually on March 24. The aim is to raise awareness about tuberculosis (TB), the world’s deadliest infectious disease, and about the ongoing efforts to eliminate it. Ending the epidemics of communicable diseases such as AIDS, TB, malaria, and neglected tropical diseases is also one of the targets under the Sustainable Development Goals framework (SDG 3.3).
Tuberculosis was the 10th leading cause of death globally in 2021, according to the latest available data on the top 15 causes of death worldwide, published by the WHO. Among infectious diseases, TB is the most lethal. In recent years it was surpassed only by COVID-19, between 2020 and 2022.
Over 10 million people continue to fall ill with TB every year. More than half (56%) of those who develop the TB disease live in just 5 countries: India (26%), Indonesia (10%), China (6.8%), the Philippines (6.8%) and Pakistan (6.3%), based on the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2024.
The incidence of tuberculosis measures the estimated number of new and relapse tuberculosis cases arising in a given year. Globally, the incidence of TB rate per 100,000 declined by almost a quarter from 2000 to 2023, but by less than 9 percent in the last eight years. This is far from the WHO End TB Strategy milestone – which calls for a reduction of 50 percent in TB incidence between 2015 and 2025.
Without treatment about half of people with active TB will die. The global TB death rate per 100,000 people has declined from 17 in 2015 to 13 in 2023, a reduction of 23 percent. At the current rate of progress it is unlikely that the world will reach the WHO milestone of reducing TB mortality by 75 percent between 2015 and 2025.
A few countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa and the East Asia and Pacific regions continue to have death rates from TB (per 100,000 people) that are much higher than the global average, including the Central African Republic (91), Myanmar (80), or the Marshall Islands (76).
Early detection and treatment are crucial for reducing TB deaths. With proper treatments, approximately 85 percent of people with TB can be cured. Between 2010 and 2023 treatment coverage for TB increased from approximately 51 percent of people with active TB in 2010 to about 75 percent in 2023, according to data published by the WHO. The share of people receiving treatment was lower in the first years of the COVID-19 pandemic, due largely to delays in disease diagnosis and reporting.
Despite progress, global milestones and targets for reductions in the TB disease burden are currently off-track.
For more information, please refer to the annual Global Tuberculosis Report 2024 published by the World Health Organization.