Ending tuberculosis by 2030: understanding the transmission

Tuberculosis (TB), a preventable and curable disease, remains a leading cause of global morbidity and mortality, with over 10 million people infected and 1.6 million dying from it in 2021.1 Even with a sufficiently high bacterial burden for detection by sputum smear microscopy, up to 25% of the cases lack clinical symptoms of TB. Forty-three percent of the burden of TB incidence and upward trends in death occur in the Southeast Asia region, home to 26% of the world’s population.1 Furthermore, the number of notifications of people diagnosed with TB has decreased due to the unprecedented impact of COVID-related disruptions on essential TB services, diverting routine health care staff from responding pandemic.