New cases of tuberculosis globally reached a record high in 2023, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Roughly 8.2 million individuals were newly diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) last year, which is the highest number since the organization began monitoring the disease in 1995, the WHO said in an Oct. 29 statement.
“This represents a notable increase from 7.5 million reported in 2022, placing TB again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing COVID-19,” the WHO stated.
TB caused an estimated 1.25 million deaths last year, according to an Oct. 29 WHO report.
The total number of people falling ill with tuberculosis has been rising since 2021, the report said. Last year, 10.8 million individuals contracted the disease, a small increase from 10.7 million in the previous year, but much higher than the 10.1 million in 2020.
The WHO noted that most of the increase in TB cases between 2022 and 2023 reflected population growth. The rate of incidence largely remained similar in both years.
Just five nations accounted for 56 percent of new annual tuberculosis cases—India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and Pakistan.
Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, director of the organization’s Global Tuberculosis Program, called the numbers a “sobering reality,” stressing the need for collective action to deal with the issue. There is an “urgent need to tackle drug-resistant tuberculosis, a significant driver of antimicrobial resistance.”
“Reductions in the number of deaths from TB since 2022 and the slowing increase in the TB incidence rate are the result of substantial post-COVID recovery in TB diagnosis and treatment,” the report said.
The WHO noted that a key barrier to plugging diagnostic and treatment gaps among TB-affected individuals is the financial costs. Roughly 50 percent of individuals face medical costs that are more than 20 percent of their annual incomes, which the WHO called “catastrophic.”
“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,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
