WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2023: Rising tuberculosis case numbers worldwide

On November 7, 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the annual Tuberculosis (TB) Report, which reports on global developments in the infectious disease. The report contains data from 192 different countries on regional epidemiological developments from 2022.

The number of new TB cases estimated by the WHO rose to around 10.6 million in 2022. This means that the upward trend in the number of cases observed in recent years has unfortunately continued. The estimated number of new TB cases amounted to around 10.3 million in 2021 and around 10 million in 2020. This development can be attributed to the corona pandemic, but also to current armed conflicts, which mean that fewer resources are available for TB care worldwide.

The number of deaths attributable to TB disease is estimated at 1.3 million for last year. This corresponds to around 100,000 fewer deaths than in 2021 and 2020 (1.4 million estimated deaths in each year) and is therefore roughly at the same level as in 2019.

This means that mortality worldwide has fallen by around 19% since 2015. Although this development is positive, it is still a long way from the targets of the WHO "End TB Strategy", which aims to reduce the number of deaths by 75% by 2025.

In summary, this year's report highlights how important it is not to lose sight of TB as one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases and to prioritize its control again in order to achieve the goals of the "End TB Strategy".

You can find the entire report here: https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/373828/9789240083851-eng.pdf?sequence=1