WHO Raises Alarm as TB Death Toll Hits 1.1 Million

An estimated 1.1 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) worldwide in 2025, despite a 35 per cent reduction in fatalities over the past decade, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported.

The figure was contained in the WHO’s 2026 Global Tuberculosis Report released on Thursday, which described TB as “the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent”.

The report estimated that 10.6 million people contracted the disease last year, while treatment had saved about 86 million lives since 2000.

Although the decline in deaths marked the achievement of the first mortality target under the WHO’s End TB Strategy, it came five years behind schedule.

WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed the progress but warned that the death toll remained unacceptable.

“The continued decline in TB cases and deaths is very encouraging, especially given the challenges many countries have faced from funding cuts,” he said.

“Many governments have dug deeper into their own budgets to protect the gains they have made. And yet, more than one million people still die each year from a disease that is preventable and treatable.

“We urge countries and partners to urgently expand access to TB services, protect essential funding and accelerate the development of new tools to end this epidemic,” he added.

The report also highlighted shortcomings in diagnosis, revealing that only 8.4 million of the estimated 10.6 million people who developed TB in 2025 were diagnosed. The remaining 2.2 million were either undiagnosed or unreported.

It further disclosed that drug-resistant TB affected an estimated 370,000 people, but only 42 per cent received treatment.

The WHO said the African Region recorded a 30 per cent reduction in TB incidence between 2015 and 2025, while Europe achieved a 42 per cent decline. However, the Americas recorded a 13 per cent increase.

On funding, domestic investment in TB programmes rose by 14 per cent to $5.6bn between 2024 and 2025, helping to cushion declining international support.

However, research funding remained inadequate at $1.2bn in 2023, less than a quarter of the $5bn annual target for 2027.

The WHO urged governments and development partners to increase funding, improve access to early diagnosis and treatment, and accelerate the development of new vaccines and medicines to curb the disease.