Record number of new tuberculosis cases diagnosed last year (WHO)

Some 8.2 million new cases of tuberculosis were diagnosed worldwide last year, the highest number ever recorded since WHO began tracking nearly 30 years ago.

The World Health Organization's annual report on tuberculosis released Tuesday highlights "mixed progress in the global fight against the disease, with persistent challenges including major underfunding," it said in a statement.

While the number of deaths from tuberculosis has declined from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million in 2023, the total number of people contracting the disease has increased.

Nearly 8.2 million new cases were diagnosed in 2023, a record since monitoring began in 1995.

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This is a "significant increase" from the 7.5 million cases reported in 2022, and as a result TB is once again the infectious disease causing the highest number of deaths, surpassing Covid-19, the WHO said.

However, not all new cases are diagnosed and the WHO estimates that around 10.8 million people actually contracted the disease last year.

“It is a scandal that TB continues to affect and kill so many people, even though we have the tools to prevent, detect and treat it,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in the statement.

"WHO urges all countries to deliver on the concrete commitments they have made to scale up the use of these tools and end TB," he said.

The increase in cases between 2022 and 2023 largely reflects population growth, according to the report. The tuberculosis incidence rate (new cases per 100,000 population) in 2023 was 134, a very small increase (0.2%) compared to 2022.

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Most of the people who develop TB each year are in 30 countries. And five countries together accounted for 56% of the global total last year: India (26%), Indonesia (10%), China (6.8%), the Philippines (6.8%) and Pakistan (6.3%).

According to the report, 55% of those who developed the disease were men, 33% were women and 12% were children or young adolescents.

WHO also highlights that the therapeutic success rate in the treatment of multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant (MDR-RR) tuberculosis has now reached 68%, compared to 64% in 2020 and 50% in 2012.

But of the estimated 400,000 people who developed MDR-RR TB, only 44% were diagnosed and treated in 2023.