TB Overview Fact Sheet

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Tuberculosis (TB) is the top infectious disease killer worldwide, claiming 1.25 lives each year. CDC is at the forefront of the global response to TB.

• Nearly 2 billion may have been infected with TB (nearly 1/4 of the world's population).
• 10.8 million people became ill with TB disease in 2023. Of those, 1.25 million (12%) were children.

TB anywhere is TB everywhere. It spreads from person to person and can move across borders. Responding to TB global ensures a safter America and a safer world.

What is driving the continued spread of TB?

Missed TB

Each year, around 25% of people who become ill with TB remain undiagnosed and untreated. Untreated people can infect 10 to 15 additional people per year - and 10% of those infected go on to develop active TB in their lifetimes.

Health care system gaps

Patients that are not treated effectively contribute to the growing threat of drug-resistant TB (DR TB).

HIV-associated TB

TB is the #1 cause of death among people living with HIV and whose weakened immune systems make them more susceptible to TB disease.

Drug resistant TB

TB has grown resistant to best available drugs. Drug resistant TB is deadlier, costlier and harder to treat. It's now found in every country with 400,000 new cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and rifampicin-resistant TB (RR TB) in 2023.

Progress has been made towards global targets for TB elimination and we urgently need to do more to end TB by 2035.

• More than 79 million lives have been saved since the year 2000 due to global efforts to combat TB.
• TB response efforts yield $40 for every $1 invested.
• To bend the curve on TB, the global community's resolve must be matched with action or we risk unraveling the progress we've made to date.

CDC's efforts

CDC is at the forefront of innovation to end TB as a global public health threat.

CDC works with ministries of health in 42 countries with a high burden of TB to prevent, diagnose, and treat TB disease and enhance global TB response efforts. Through a unique combination of scientific and on-the-ground implementation, CDC is accelerating progress towards global TB elimination targets.

Diagnose

• Expanding access to better screening, diagnostics, and contact tracing.
• Providing training and technical support to scale use of new and faster diagnostic tools.
• Transforming the approach to diagnosing TB among children, people living with HIV, (PLHIV) and other vulnerable groups.

Treat

• Working with ministries of health to implement high-quality TB programs and services designed for individual communities.
• Working with ministries of health to strengthen disease surveillance systems critical for finding and curing TB.

Prevent

• Identifying TB areas to target screening efforts. Strengthening infection prevention and control (IPC) control programs in health facilities and communities.
• Working through PEPFAR to address HIV-associated TB by providing antiretroviral treatment and TB screening for PLHIV.

Sustain

• Developing and strengthening surveillance and laboratory systems.
• Expanding workforce and research capacity through guidelines, mentorship, and training programs.
• Strengthening programs through operational research, implementation, and evaluation.

CDC's key accomplishments and programs

In 2024, CDC supported TB screenings for 10.4 million people living with HIV. Building on PEPFAR's platform, CDC and partners have helped over 9 million people living with HIV complete TB preventive treatment.

CDC is scaling up novel approaches to diagnosing TB in children, working with partners in-country to strengthen clinical and microbiological diagnosis of TB in children. In collaboration with Ministries of Health, CDC developed an IPC toolkit and implemented it in PEPFAR-supported facilities in 18 countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean.

In India, CDC and partners are fighting DR TB by intensifying efforts to find missing cases, boost lab capacity, and strengthen infection control measures.

Looking towards the future

We stand at a critical juncture, with an opportunity to elevate global leadership and commitment in the TB response. We must act now to:

• Scale up effective tools and strategies.
• Develop new approaches including less toxic drugs and more effective diagnostics.
• Strengthen surveillance systems, lab capacity and TB infection control measures.
• Develop an effective vaccine.
• Encourage greater accountability, collaboration and investments from all corners of the global health community.