1.3 Million Tuberculosis Deaths Reported Last Year

The World Health Organization's (WHO) 2023 Global Tuberculosis (TB) report, announced today, shows the impact of this centuries-old disease.

The report, published on November 7, 2023, features TB outbreak data from 192 countries and areas and shows that 7.5 million people were diagnosed in 2022, the highest figure recorded since 1995.

According to the WHO, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB in 2022, up from 10.3 million in 2021.

And the total number of TB-related deaths (including those among people with HIV) was 1.3 million in 2022. TB continues to be the leading killer among people with HIV.

Geographically, most people who developed TB in 2022 were in South-East Asia (46%), Africa (23%), and the Western Pacific (18%), with smaller proportions in the Eastern Mediterranean (8.1%), the Americas (3.1%) and Europe (2.2%).

In a press release, Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO's Global TB Programme, commented, "This report provides key data and evidence on the status of the TB epidemic and a review of the progress that serves to inform the translation of these targets and commitments into action in countries."

"We need all hands on deck to make the vision of ending TB a reality."

TB is a vaccine-preventable disease, with about 16 different Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccines in use globally.

In the U.S., access to the BCG vaccine is limited and considered for people who meet specific criteria. Merck's TICE® BCG vaccine is an attenuated, live culture preparation of the BCG strain of Mycobacterium Bovis and is available in 2023.