India still has a quarter of the world's TB cases, WHO report says

TL;DR in 30 sec

• India had about a quarter of the world’s TB cases and 23% of TB deaths in 2025, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2026.
• TB deaths in India have fallen 38% since 2015, against 35% worldwide, the Union Health Ministry said, as reported by Mint.
• The WHO report does not give a new estimate of TB cases in India this year because it is under review, The Indian Express reported.
• Around the world, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.1 million died in 2025, according to WHO.

What happened

The World Health Organization (WHO) released its Global Tuberculosis Report 2026 on 12 November, according to a WHO news release.

An estimated 10.6 million people developed tuberculosis (TB) in 2025 and 1.1 million died of it, WHO said. Deaths have fallen 35% since 2015, but the rate of new cases has dropped only 14%, far short of the 50% cut planned for 2025, the release said.

India had about a quarter of all TB cases in 2025, the largest share of any country, according to the report. It also had the largest share of deaths, 23%, followed by Indonesia (11%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.1%), South Africa (4.7%) and Pakistan (4.4%), the report said.

The report lists India among the high-burden countries that have cut TB deaths by at least 35% since 2015, a target the world had set for 2020. India reached it in 2025, according to WHO.

The Union Health Ministry said India’s TB deaths have fallen 38% since 2015, Mint reported. The ministry also said 94% of patients with drug-sensitive TB, the kind that standard medicines can treat, were treated successfully, according to Mint.

In a release on 13 November, WHO’s South-East Asia office said the region, which includes India, had 3.6 million TB cases in 2025, or 34% of the world’s total, and 400 000 deaths.

Why it matters for India 🇮🇳

TB is still the deadliest disease caused by a single germ, WHO said in its release.

The world remains far from the 2030 goal of ending TB, The Indian Express reported.

India diagnosed 25.3 lakh people with TB in 2025, down from 26.18 lakh in 2024, The Indian Express reported.

The ministry said 96% of the money India’s TB programme needs now comes from the country’s own budget, according to Mint.

Background

TB is an infectious disease that can be prevented and cured, WHO’s South-East Asia office said in its release.

WHO’s End TB Strategy set milestones for 2015 to 2030, according to the report. One was a 35% fall in deaths by 2020. Another was a 50% fall in the rate of new cases by 2025.

Estimates of new TB cases in India usually come from large surveys that test people for the disease, The Indian Express reported. One such survey was carried out in 2025 in 50 representative districts, according to The Indian Express. Mint described it as a nationally representative survey by ICMR-NIRT, the Indian Council of Medical Research’s National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis.

Money is a growing concern. About 86% of spending against TB in 2025 came from countries’ own budgets, The Hindu reported. International donor funding fell from US$ 1.1 billion in 2024 to US$ 0.94 billion in 2025, according to The Hindu.

Different perspectives

The Health Ministry credits its TB elimination programme, with AI-enabled X-rays, rapid tests and nutrition support for patients, Mint reported. More than 250 million people were screened for TB between December 2024 and November 2026, the ministry said, according to Mint.

The Indian Express pointed out that the WHO report leaves out India’s estimated number of new cases, a figure that shows how many cases may still be going undetected. India has also not released its own annual TB report this year, the newspaper said.

Katherine Floyd of WHO said the 2025 survey data must first be compared with the earlier national survey of 2020-21, The Indian Express reported. “Once any required adjustments are made, the estimates will be released,” she said, as quoted by the newspaper.

Vikas Oswal, a TB specialist, said X-ray screening and rapid tests must reach vulnerable communities, according to The Indian Express.

WHO’s South-East Asia office said both cases and deaths in the region are still short of the 2025 milestones. “These numbers are a stark reminder that TB remains one of the Region’s most pressing public health and development challenges,” Nilesh Buddha, its officer-in-charge, said in the release. The office added that 44% of people with TB and their households in the region face catastrophic costs.

Open questions 🤔

• What will WHO’s updated estimate of new TB cases in India show when it is published?
• When will India release its own annual TB report for this year?
• Will the fall in donor funding slow TB testing and treatment in the South-East Asia Region?

What to watch next

WHO’s data note says India’s updated estimates are expected in early 2027, according to The Indian Express.