Cases are on a downward trajectory for the first time since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
But a new report finds that while progress has been made in the global fight against the disease, funding gaps are undermining hard-won gains.
Funding gap threatens progress
“The reduction in the global burden of tuberculosis and progress in testing, treatment, social protection and research are all good news. after years of setbacks, but progress is not victory,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The fact that tuberculosis continues to claim more than a million lives each year, although it is preventable and curable, is simply unacceptable..”
The WHO says global funding for TB has stagnated since 2020, with only $5.9 billion available in 2024 – well short of the annual target of $22 billion for 2027 – raising concerns that reductions could lead to up to two million additional deaths and 10 million cases over the next decade.
Global decline
Between 2023 and 2024, the global rate of people with tuberculosis decreased by almost 2 percent, while deaths decreased by 3 percent.
“The number of people being tested and treated is increasing and research is progressing,” said Dr. Tedros.
Since last year, more than half of the world’s population is covered by rapid tests54 percent compared to 48 percent in 2023. Additionally, the treatment recorded a success rate of 88 percent, according to the report.
Some regions have been more successful than others in reducing the prevalence of tuberculosis.
Between 2015 and 2024, the WHO African region successfully reduced the rate of indecent assault by 28 percent and deaths from the disease decreased by 46 percent.
THE European region saw a 39 percent drop in incidence and a 49 percent reduction in deaths.
However, by 2024, 87 percent of the global number of people who developed tuberculosis were concentrated in 30 countrieswhere social protection remains very unequal, indicates the report.
