Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is spread when people who are sick with TB expel bacteria into the air; for example, by coughing. The disease typically affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect other sites (extrapulmonary TB). Despite it being a preventable, treatable and curable, every year TB claims more than a million lives and affects 10 million people, exacting enormous costs on families and communities. TB remains one of the leading infectious killers worldwide and the leading cause of death among people living with HIV. It is also a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance.

About one-quarter of the world’s population are estimated to be infected with M. tuberculosis but only 5–10% of them have a lifetime risk of falling ill with TB. TB is a disease of poverty, economic distress, and vulnerability: Most people who fall ill with TB therefore live in low- and middle-income countries. In 2019, two thirds of all people who developed TB were in 8 countries: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines and South Africa.

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted access to health facilities, and financial and human resources for TB services causing a sharp fall in the global number of people with TB who were diagnosed and reported to national authorities (19% reduction between 2019 and 2020). These adverse impacts may take months or years to manifest, but decades to undo. 

Putting the world back on track to realizing the End TB Strategy targets of 2035 requires that safe and effective vaccines that prevent TB infection or disease urgently advance from the research pipeline into large scale programmatic use.

For information on the TB vaccine pipeline, see the link below: