WHO’s Global TB Report 2025: India Logged Highest Number of TB Cases in 2024 Despite Lower Incidence

In November 2025, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released its latest Global Tuberculosis (TB) Report 2025. As per the report, India’s TB incidence rate (new cases emerging each year) declined by 21% i.e. from 237 per lakh population (in 2015) to 187 per lakh population (in 2024), which is almost double the rate of decline observed globally (i.e. at 12%).

• Despite one of the largest global reductions in TB incidence, India has not yet reached the government’s 2025 target of 77 cases per lakh population.
• In 2024, India had the highest number of TB cases worldwide, accounting for a quarter(1/4) of all cases, followed by Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and Pakistan.

About Global TB Report 2025:

Overview: This annual edition of WHO report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic and of progress in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease, at global, regional and country levels.

Source: The report is based mainly on data collected by the WHO from national ministries of health in annual rounds of data collection.

• A total of 184 countries and territories, representing over 99% of the world’s population and TB cases, submitted data to the WHO.

Global Scenario:

Global Impact: As per the WHO’s report, tuberculosis remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, causing over 1.2 million deaths and affecting approximately 10.7 million people in 2024.

• The global TB incidence rate fell by 1.7% in 2024, reaching 131 cases per 1 lakh population compared to the 2023 rate.

Largest Contributors: The report further highlighted that together, 8 countries accounted for 67% of global TB cases in 2024, led by India (25%), followed by Indonesia (10%), the Philippines (6.8%), China (6.5%), Pakistan (6.3%), Nigeria (4.8%), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) (3.9%), and Bangladesh (3.6%).

• 30 high‑TB burden countries accounted for 87% of all estimated new cases globally, with India, Indonesia, the Philippines, China, and Pakistan alone contributing over half (55%) of the total.

Region-wise: The report revealed that South-East Asia (SEA) region registered the highest rate of TB cases i.e. at 34% (in 2024) compared to all regions; followed by the Western Pacific (27%), Africa (25%), Eastern Mediterranean  (8.6%), the Americas (3.3%) and Europe (1.9%).

Key Progress:

Global Rate Falling Ill with TB: Globally, the number of people falling ill with TB decreased to 10.7 million in 2024, marking an improvement of nearly 2% compared to 2023.

Global Death Rate: As per the report, the global rate of deaths caused by TB also declined by 3% i.e. from 1.27 million people (in 2023) to 1.23 million people (in 2024),

TB Diagnosis and Treatment: In 2024, 8.3 million people were newly diagnosed and treated for TB (78% of total cases), while 5.3 million high‑risk individuals received preventive treatment, up from 4.7 million in 2023.

• Globally, the coverage of rapid testing for TB diagnosis increased to 54% (in 2024) compared to 48% (in 2023).
• Over 164,000 people received treatment for drug-resistant TB in 2024, with the treatment success rate improving from 68% in 2023 to 71% in 2024.

India-Specific:

TB Treatment Coverage: The report also showed that India’s treatment coverage surged from 53% (in 2015) to over 92% (in 2024), with 26.18 lakh TB patients being diagnosed last year, out of an estimated incidence of 27 lakh cases.

• This improvement was mainly driven by the swift uptake of newer technologies, decentralization of services, and large scale community mobilization.

MDR Related TB Cases: The report highlighted that India still accounted for 32% of Multirdrug-Resistant (MDR) TB cases worldwide in 2024.

• However, both WHO and the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoH&FW) showed that MDR TB incidence has been gradually declining.

Treatment Success Rate: The success rate of TB treatment under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan increases to 90%, compared to global treatment success rate of 88%.

TB related Mortality Rate: As per the report, TB related mortality rate in India has declined from 28 per lakh population (in 2015) to 21 per lakh population (in 2024).

Key Progress Made by India Led Initiatives:

TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan: Since the launch of TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyan in December 2024, over 19 crore vulnerable individuals have been screened for TB across the country, leading to the detection of more than 24.5 lakh TB patients, including 8.61 lakh asymptomatic TB cases.

Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana (NPY): Since its inception in April 2018, GoI has disbursed Rs 4,406 crore directly into the bank accounts of 1.37 crore beneficiaries.

• Till date, 6.77 lakh individuals and organisations have enrolled as Ni-kshay Mitras and distributed more than 45 lakh food baskets to TB patients.
• In October 2024, the Government of India(GoI) has increased the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) under NPY from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per month per patient for the entire treatment duration.

About World Health Organisation (WHO):
Director General (DG)- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Headquarters- Geneva, Switzerland
Established – 1948