Tuberculosis has officially surpassed COVID-19 to become the number one infectious disease killer globally, data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has revealed.
The peak health body has shown figures indicating that while the number of people who lost their lives to the disease in 2023 had dropped compared to the year prior (1.25 million in 2023 to 1.32 million in 2022), annual infections rose to around 10.8 million in 2023.
In a report released on Tuesday, the WHO also pointed out that last year alone, 8.5 million people were newly diagnosed with tuberculosis — the highest single-year figure since the organisation began keeping track of infections back in 1995.
These figures highlight the challenges in the global effort to eradicate the disease, which the report describes as a “distant goal”.
“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,” WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.
The UN agency says more progress and funding is necessary to hit significant milestones for reducing the burden brought by the disease on the health system of nations around the world.
Middle and low-income countries are currently dealing with the largest number of tuberculosis cases, at almost 98 per cent, and are in crucial need of funding.
In 2023, the gap between the estimated number of new tuberculosis cases and those reported narrowed to about 2.7 million, down from COVID-19 pandemic levels of around 4 million in 2020 and 2021.
