Global TB Response off Track: Urgent Priorities to End the World’s Top Infectious Killer

11 December 2025

Despite progress and advances in diagnostics and treatments, TB remains the world’s leading cause of death from an infectious disease. The WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2025 reveals that progress towards the End TB and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets is lagging, with projections showing these goals might not be met until around the middle of the century. In 2024, an estimated 10·7 million people developed TB and 1·23 million died, including 160 000 people living with HIV. Since 2015, global incidence has dropped only 12% and mortality 29%, both far below the 2025 targets of 50% and 75%. The gap between End TB targets and reality has widened.

A comment, published in The Lancet, outlines what ending TB requires now – a new paradigm change of innovation, one that is structural, operational, and social, rather than solely biomedical.

Access the full comment here /free registration required/.