India recorded most tuberculosis cases globally in 2024: WHO

India accounted for the highest number of tuberculosis cases globally in 2024, according to a report released Wednesday by the World Health Organisation. The country recorded a quarter of all worldwide cases.

Global Burden and Distribution

The Global Tuberculosis Report 2025 indicated that just eight countries together contribute to 67% of the total global disease burden. India leads this list at 25%.

• Indonesia: 10%
• Philippines: 6.8%
• China: 6.5%
• Pakistan: 6.3%
• Nigeria: 4.8%
• Democratic Republic of the Congo: 3.9%
• Bangladesh: 3.6%

India's Progress and Targets

India’s tuberculosis rate stood at 187 per one lakh population in 2024. This represents a significant 21% reduction from 2015, when the rate was 237 per one lakh population.

Despite this progress, the country is still short of the Union government's elimination target of reducing the burden to 77 cases per one lakh population by 2025, as reported by the Deccan Herald. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a 2025 deadline for eliminating tuberculosis in 2018. The United Nations, on its part, has set a broader goal to eliminate the disease by 2030.

Mortality Figures

Tuberculosis mortality figures also showed a marginal improvement, reaching 21 per one lakh population in 2024, according to the WHO report. However, this figure remains over three times higher than the elimination target set by the Union government, the newspaper reported.

Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (DR-TB)

The report also stated that India recorded a third of the globe’s drug-resistant tuberculosis cases in 2024. Four countries accounted for more than half of the persons estimated to have developed multi-drug resistant (MDR) and rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (RR-TB) globally in 2024.

These countries include India at 32%, China and the Philippines at over 7% each, and Russia at 6.7%. Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis is a form of the disease resistant to a combination of two antibiotics, rifampicin and isoniazid. Rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis occurs when bacteria are no longer susceptible to rifampicin, which is among the primary medicines used to treat the disease.

The World Health Organisation further noted a gradual decline in the number of persons susceptible to developing drug-resistant tuberculosis each year. Those with multi-drug resistant or rifampicin-resistant variants comprised 3.2% of the total burden in 2024, and more than 1,64,000 persons received treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis that year.

Union Health Ministry's Response

Citing the Global Tuberculosis Report 2025, the Union Health Ministry stated on Thursday that India’s "innovative case finding approach" boosted its treatment coverage to over 92% in 2024, significantly up from 53% in 2015.

The ministry reported that approximately 26.18 lakh tuberculosis patients were diagnosed in 2024, out of an estimated incidence of 27 lakh cases. This effort has helped reduce the number of "missing cases"—those with TB not reported to the program—from an estimated 15 lakhs in 2015 to less than one lakh in 2024.

The ministry also confirmed that there has been no significant increase in the number of multi-drug resistant TB patients in the country. Similarly, India’s TB mortality rate has decreased from 28 per lakh population in 2015 to 21 per lakh population in 2024, reflecting substantial progress in reducing deaths due to the disease.