Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s leading cause of death from a single infectious disease, killing 1.23 million people in 2024, including 150,000 among those living with HIV, while ranking among the top 10 causes of death globally.
An estimated 10.7 million people fell ill with TB, including 5.8 million men, 3.7 million women, and 1.2 million children, with cases reported across all countries and age groups.
The disease, caused by bacteria that mainly affect the lungs, spreads through the air when infected individuals cough, sneeze, or spit. Although about a quarter of the global population carries the bacteria, only 5–10% develop active disease, with children at higher risk.
The burden remains highest in low- and middle-income countries, accounting for over 80% of cases and deaths, with South-East Asia, the Western Pacific, and Africa contributing the largest shares.
Nearly 87% of cases are concentrated in 30 high-burden countries, led by India, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, Pakistan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Bangladesh.
TB is closely linked to HIV, with infected individuals being 12 times more likely to develop the disease, making it the leading cause of death among people with HIV.
Other key risk factors include undernutrition, diabetes, tobacco use, and harmful alcohol consumption.
Despite being preventable and curable, TB continues to pose a major challenge due to gaps in diagnosis and treatment, particularly for multidrug-resistant TB, where only about two in five patients accessed treatment in 2024.
Standard treatment involves a 4–6 month course of antibiotics, and new shorter all-oral regimens are being introduced to improve outcomes.
Global efforts have saved an estimated 83 million lives since 2000, but about half of affected households still face catastrophic costs, and funding remains inadequate, with only a fraction of the required $22 billion annually available to meet global targets by 2027.
