Tuberculosis (TB) has replaced Covid-19 as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed.
In its latest report, the Global Tuberculosis Report 2024, the WHO stated that approximately 8.2 million people were diagnosed with TB in 2023 – the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995.
This represents a significant increase from the 7.5 million cases reported in 2022, placing TB once again as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing Covid-19.
The Global Tuberculosis Report 2024 highlighted mixed progress in the global fight against TB, with persistent challenges, such as significant underfunding.
While the number of TB-related deaths dropped from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million in 2023, the total number of people falling ill with TB rose slightly to an estimated 10.8 million in 2023.
With the disease disproportionately affecting people in 30 high-burden countries – India (26 per cent), Indonesia (10 per cent), China (6.8 per cent), the Philippines (6.8 per cent), and Pakistan (6.3 per cent) – collectively accounted for 56 per cent of the global TB burden.
According to the report, 55 per cent of people who developed TB were men, 33 per cent were women, and 12 per cent were children and young adolescents.
“The fact that TB still kills and afflicts 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.
“WHO urges all countries to make good on the concrete commitments they have made to expand the use of those tools, and to end TB.”
According to Malaysia’s Health Ministry earlier this year, a total of 26,781 TB cases were reported in the country in 2023 – an increase of 1,390, compared with 2022. A total of 2,623 deaths were recorded in 2023, an increase of 51, compared with 2022, which recorded 2,572 deaths.
Meanwhile, the WHO stated that in 2023, the gap between the estimated number of new TB cases and those reported narrowed to about 2.7 million, down from Covid-19 pandemic levels of around 4 million in 2020 and 2021. This follows substantial national and global efforts to recover from Covid-related disruptions to TB mitigation efforts.
The report also noted that global funding for TB prevention and care decreased further in 2023 and remains far below target. Low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), which bear 98 per cent of the TB burden, faced significant funding shortages. Only US$5.7 billion of the US$22 billion annual funding target was available in 2023, equivalent to only 26 per cent of the global target.
The report indicated TB research also remained severely underfunded, with only one-fifth of the US$5 billion annual target reached in 2022. This impeded the development of new TB diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines.
The WHO added that a significant number of new TB cases were driven by five major risk factors: undernutrition, HIV infection, alcohol use disorders, smoking (especially among men), and diabetes.
Tackling these issues, along with critical determinants like poverty and GDP per capita, required coordinated multisectoral action.
“We are confronted with a multitude of formidable challenges: funding shortfalls and catastrophic financial burdens on those affected, climate change, conflict, migration and displacement, pandemics, and drug-resistant tuberculosis, a significant driver of antimicrobial resistance,” said WHO’s global tuberculosis programme director, Dr Tereza Kasaeva.
Global milestones and targets for reducing the TB disease burden are also off track, and considerable progress was needed to reach other targets set for 2027 ahead of the second UN High-Level Meeting.
The WHO called on governments, global partners, and donors to urgently translate the commitments made during the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB into tangible actions.
It said increased funding for research, particularly for new TB vaccines, was essential to accelerate progress and achieve the global targets set for 2027.
Main pic: File image
