The pandemic has reversed years of global progress in treating and preventing tuberculosis, the World Health Organization said in an Oct. 14 report.
Four findings:
1. About 10 million people develop tuberculosis annually. However, only 5.8 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2020, down from 7.1 million in 2019.
2. The latest diagnostic figures represent levels not seen since 2012 and suggest that at least an estimated 4.1 million people have tuberculosis but have not been diagnosed or treated.
3. In 2020, 150,359 people received treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis, a 15 percent decrease from 2019.
4. About 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis in 2020, the WHO estimates, which marks the first increase in global deaths since 2005.