India Accounts for 26% of Global TB Burden, WHO Report Reveals
New Delhi: As India strives to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, five years ahead of the global target, a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) reveals alarming statistics. The report indicates that India bears the highest burden of TB, accounting for 26% of the global cases.
The Global Tuberculosis Report 2024 highlights India’s status among the 30 high-burden countries, surpassing Indonesia (10%), China (6.8%), the Philippines (6.8%), and Pakistan (6.3%). Together, these nations represent 56% of the worldwide TB burden.
In a stark reminder of TB’s impact, the report identifies it as the leading infectious disease killer globally in 2023, surpassing Covid-19. Approximately 8.2 million new TB cases were diagnosed in 2023, the highest number recorded since WHO began monitoring TB in 1995, marking an increase from 7.5 million reported in 2022.
The report notes that TB predominantly affects men, who accounted for 55% of cases, while women comprised over 30%, and children and young adolescents made up 12%. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, expressed outrage at the continued prevalence of TB, stating, “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.” He urged countries to fulfill their commitments to expand these tools and work towards ending TB.
The report identified five major risk factors driving new TB cases: undernutrition, HIV infection, alcohol use disorders, smoking (particularly among men), and diabetes. It emphasized the need for coordinated multisectoral action to address these issues alongside critical determinants like poverty and GDP per capita. The report also called for increased funding for TB research.
A positive trend noted in the report is the narrowing gap between estimated new TB cases and those reported, which decreased to about 2.7 million, down from around 4 million during the height of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021. The coverage of TB preventive treatment for people living with HIV has been sustained; however, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) remains a pressing public health crisis.
The report revealed that treatment success rates for multidrug-resistant or rifampicin-resistant TB (MDR/RR-TB) have improved to 68%. Yet, of the estimated 400,000 individuals who developed MDR/RR-TB in 2023, only 44% were diagnosed and treated, underscoring the challenges that lie ahead in combating this formidable disease.
As India navigates its ambitious goal to eradicate TB, the findings of the WHO report serve as both a wake-up call and a guide for the necessary actions required to address this critical public health issue.
