The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a record 8 million tuberculosis (TB) cases in 2023, marking the highest incidence recorded by the agency since it began monitoring the disease, the Associated Press reports.
The annual report also stated that 1.25 million people died of TB last year, nearly doubling the mortality rate from HIV and underscoring TB’s likely return as the leading cause of death from infectious diseases worldwide, surpassing COVID-19.
TB disproportionately impacts populations in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Western Pacific, with five countries—India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and Pakistan—accounting for more than half of global cases. The disease, caused by airborne bacteria primarily affecting the lungs, can remain latent in roughly a quarter of the global population, although only about 5–10% develop active symptoms.
The report noted some positive trends: overall TB deaths are on the decline, and the rate of new infections appears to be stabilizing. However, access to treatment remains a significant challenge. Of the 400,000 estimated cases of drug-resistant TB, fewer than half of the affected individuals received timely diagnosis and treatment.
“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 Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Advocacy groups, including Doctors Without Borders, are urging for broader access to affordable TB testing. In an open letter this month, they called on the US-based diagnostic company Cepheid to reduce the cost of TB tests for lower-income countries to $5 per test, aiming to improve early detection and curb the spread of the disease worldwide.
