TB Is the World's Second Deadliest Infectious Disease

Tuberculosis, or TB, was the world’s second deadliest infectious disease in 2022, following only after Covid-19. According to data from the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.13 million HIV-negative people died from TB last year. To put this into perspective, the officially reported death toll for Covid was 1.24 million in 2022, while total deaths from AIDS/HIV totaled 0.63 million and malaria 0.62 million.

When people with HIV die from TB, their deaths are officially classified as deaths from AIDS/HIV. Tuberculosis is also known as the leading killer for people living with HIV/AIDS.

In terms of all known causes of deaths, the WHO estimated in 2019 that where heart disease, strokes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were the three biggest killers, TB came in rank 13.