India accounted for world's highest burden of tuberculosis cases in 2022: WHO report 

India carried the highest burden of tuberculosis (TB ) cases in the world in 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a report.

The WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2023 released on Tuesday said that around 87 per cent of the world's total cases in 2022 emerged from 30 high TB-burden countries, with two-third of the cases registered from eight countries.

India with 27 per cent ranked highest, followed by Indonesia (10 per cent), China (7.1 per cent), the Philippines (7 per cent), Pakistan (5.7 per cent), Nigeria (4.5 per cent), Bangladesh (3.6 per cent) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3 per cent).

In India, 2.8 million cases of TB was registered and of them, 342,000 people (12 per cent) died due to the disease, the report said.

Silver lining

In a press release, WHO later lauded India for a reduction in TB cases, but noted that the progress was insufficient to meet global targets set in 2018, with disruptions caused by COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing conflicts.

It said that the “net decrease in TB-related deaths from 2015 to 2022 was 19 per cent, falling far short of the WHO End TB Strategy milestone of a 75 percent reduction by 2025”.

"The cumulative reduction in the TB incidence rate from 2015 to 2022 was 8.7 per cent, far from the WHO End TB Strategy milestone of a 50 percent reduction by 2025,” the WHO said, adding that about 50 per cent of TB patients and their households face “total costs that are catastrophic, far from the WHO End TB Strategy target of zero”.

These costs include “direct medical expenditures, non-medical expenditures, and indirect costs such as income losses that amount to more than 20 percent of total household income”, said the release.

India's response

The Union Health Ministry, however, highlighted positive aspects of the WHO report which it said acknowledged India's success in reducing number of TB cases.

It said that the report highlighted India's significant progress made in improving case detection and reversing the impact of COVID-19 on tuberculosis (TB) programme.

India’s efforts have resulted in the reduction of TB incidence by 16 per cent from 2015 to 2022, almost double the pace at which global TB incidence is declining, which is 8.7 per cent.

TB mortality has also reduced by 18% during the same period in India, the ministry said.

“The WHO has made a downward revision of TB mortality rates from 4.94 lakh in 2021 to 3.31 lakh in 2022, a reduction of over 34%,’’ a release issued by the health ministry said.