Tuberculosis Deaths and Disease Increased During Pandemic

An estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2021, an increase of 4.5% from 2020, and 1.6 million people died from TB (including 187 000 among HIV positive people), according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2022 Global TB report. Continued challenges with providing and accessing essential TB services have meant that many people with TB were not diagnosed and treated. The reported number of people newly diagnosed with TB fell from 7.1 million in 2019 to 5.8 million in 2020. Reductions in the reported number of people diagnosed with TB suggest that the number of people with undiagnosed and untreated TB has grown. Learn more from WHO here.