Tuberculosis Cases Decrease Worldwide Except for the USA

The latest global tuberculosis (TB) report provides encouraging news: the world's leading infectious disease killer is on the decline.

However, the United States is not following this trend.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Report 2025, released on November 12, indicates that the rate of new TB infections decreased by 2% from 2023 to 2024, while the number of TB-related deaths fell by 3%.

After nearly three decades of consistent decline in TB cases in the USA, the number of reported cases began increasing in 2021.

In 2024, the U.S. CDC provisionally reported 10,347 TB cases.

The percentage increases in both case counts (8%) and rates (6%) from 2023 to 2024 were lower than the increases seen from 2022 to 2023, which were both 15%.

Both the WHO and CDC say preventing TB infection and stopping progression to disease are critical for reducing incidence to the levels targeted by the End TB Strategy. For over 100 years, vaccination has been a proven intervention to reduce TB cases.

The WHO wrote that Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination is recommended as part of national childhood immunization programmes. However, global coverage dropped from 89% in 2019 to 85% in 2021. There was a recovery to 88% in 2024.

The WHO recommends BCG vaccination at birth in countries where tuberculosis is endemic. 

As of August 2025, the WHO reports 18 TB vaccine candidates in clinical development, up from 15 in 2024. The pipeline includes candidates aimed at preventing TB infection and disease, as well as those designed to improve treatment outcomes for individuals with active TB.

These innovations are in addition to over 10 versions of the BCG vaccine in use in November 2025.

In the United States, there are two types of BCG vaccines (TICE® BCG and recombinant BCG) in use, both targeting TB and various types of cancer, such as bladder cancer.

Unfortunately, access to BCG vaccines in the USA is minimal.