Global Number of TB Deaths is Declining Again

The global number of deaths from tuberculosis, or TB, is declining once more. According to data from the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 million people died from TB in 2022, which while still high, is the lowest figure since WHO records began and a drop from the Covid-19 pandemic years, when 1.4 million deaths were recorded from TB in 2021 and in 2020.

According to the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2023, released today, there were an estimated 10.6 million new cases of TB infections worldwide in 2022, up from 10.3 million in 2021. The regions with the highest share of new TB infections last year were in South-East Asia (46 percent), Africa (23 percent) and the Western Pacific (18 percent), with lower numbers in the Eastern Mediterranean (8.1 percent), the Americas (3.1 percent) and Europe (2.2 percent). Where 5.8 million men (55 percent) had TB in 2022, 3.6 million women (33 percent) had the disease and 1.3 million children (12 percent).