Tuberculosis returns as top infectious disease killer, WHO says

(Reuters) - Tuberculosis replaced COVID-19 to become the top cause for infectious disease-related deaths in 2023, according to a World Health Organization report published on Tuesday, highlighting the challenges in the global effort in eradicating the disease.

Last year about 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed, meaning they could access suitable treatment – the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995 - up from 7.5 million reported in 2022, according to the UN agency.

The data shows that eradicating tuberculosis is still a distant goal as the fight against the disease faces persistent challenges such as significant underfunding, according to the report.

"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.

While the number of deaths related to the disease fell to 1.25 million in 2023 from 1.32 million in 2022, the total number of people falling ill rose slightly to an estimated 10.8 million in 2023.

Global milestones and targets for reducing the disease burden are off-track, and considerable progress is needed to reach other targets set for 2027, the agency said.

Low- and middle-income countries, which bear 98% of the burden of the disease, faced significant funding shortages.

In 2023, the gap between the estimated number of new tuberculosis cases and those reported narrowed to about 2.7 million, down from COVID-19 pandemic levels of around 4 million in 2020 and 2021.

The multidrug-resistant form of the disease remains a public health crisis, the WHO said.

(Reporting by Sriparna Roy in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)