Global efforts to end tuberculosis (TB) continue to make progress, with fewer people falling ill and dying from the disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Report 2026 released.
This progress comes as domestic funding for TB increased by 14% to US $5.6 billion between 2024 and 2025, in part offsetting a decline in international financing of a similar scale. This increase underscores the importance of domestic investment in sustaining TB services and protecting hard-won health gains amid a global health funding crunch.
In 2025, an estimated 10.6 million people developed TB and 1.1 million people died from TB. With deaths falling by 35% since 2015 and treatment saving an estimated 86 million lives since 2000, the world has reached the first mortality milestone of WHO’s End TB Strategy, although five years later than planned. And progress has come too slowly. Since 2015, the global TB incidence rate (new cases per 100 000 population) has declined by 14%, far short of the 50% reduction milestone for 2025, and TB remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent.
The global TB burden remains heavily concentrated in 30 countries, which account for 88% of people who developed TB in 2025. Progress was uneven across regions. Between 2015 and 2025, TB incidence fell by 42% in the WHO European Region and 30% in the African Region, compared with 18% in South-East Asia and just 6.6% in the Eastern Mediterranean. There was no net change (0%) in the Western Pacific. In the Americas, incidence rose for the fifth consecutive year in 2025, reaching 13% above 2015 levels. These stark differences reflect variations in the TB risk factors, the strength of health systems, access to services and levels of sustained invest
Major gaps in access to timely diagnosis and treatment remain. Of the estimated 10.6 million people who developed TB in 2025, 8.4 million were diagnosed, leaving an estimated 2.2 million either undiagnosed or unreported. Just 59% of newly diagnosed patients were tested using a WHO-recommended rapid diagnostic test, far short of the 100% target for 2027.
Drug-resistant TB remains a major public health challenge. Of the estimated 370 000 people who developed rifampicin-resistant TB in 2025, only 42% received treatment. Among those treated, uptake of the WHO-recommended six-month treatment regimen increased substantially, from 18% in 2024 to 42% in 2025.
Investment in TB research is critically insufficient. Greater investment is urgently needed to develop and roll out new vaccines, diagnostics and treatments. WHO is calling on governments and partners to strengthen political commitment, protect and increase sustainable financing for TB diagnosis and effective treatment,
Meanwhile, severe hunger is expected to deepen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), with a record 30.3 million people projected to face Crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above) between January and June 2027, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) warn conflict, displacement and rising food prices are driving the crisis, compounded by Ebola and other disease outbreaks humanitarian assistance is now falling dangerously. Nearly 29 million people – almost a quarter of the population – face Crisis or worse levels of acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above) from September to December 2026, including 3.6 million in Emergency (IPC Phase 4). By early 2027, the number facing Emergency levels of hunger is projected to rise by nearly 600 000 to 4.2 million. The total facing Crisis or worse is projected to reach 30.3 million between January and June 2027, up from 26.5 million between January and June 2026.
Eastern DRC faces the sharpest concentration of urgent humanitarian assistance. The crisis reaches beyond the eastern hotspots. Acute malnutrition and poor access to health care, safe water and sanitation compound the crisis, particularly for children under five, who face the greatest risk from acute malnutrition. Together, they deepen hunger’s consequences and make recovery harder, especially where basic services are already stretched.
FAO, WFP, UNICEF and WHO call for urgent, coordinated financing and diplomatic action to scale up food assistance, protect and restore agricultural livelihoods, prevent and treat acute malnutrition, and sustain essential health, nutrition, safe water and sanitation services, and secure safe, unimpeded humanitarian access.
