Tuberculosis (TB) has officially surpassed COVID-19 to become the number one infectious disease killer globally, data from the World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed.
The peak health body figures show that although the number of people who died from the disease dropped from 1.32 million in 2022 to 1.25 million in 2023, annual infections rose to approximately 10.8 million last year.
In a report released on Tuesday, the WHO also pointed out that last year alone, 8.5 million people were newly diagnosed with TB — the highest single-year figure since it 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 are necessary to achieve significant milestones in reducing the burden the disease places on the health systems of nations around the world.
Middle and low-income countries are currently dealing with the largest number of TB cases, at almost 98 per cent, and are in crucial need of funding.
In 2023, the gap between the estimated number of new cases and those reported narrowed to about 2.7 million, down from COVID-19 pandemic levels of around 4 million in 2020 and 2021.
