TB Tipping Point: India Has 25% of the World’s Cases - New Drugs Changing the Story

India has finally bent the tuberculosis curve. Since 2015, the country has cut new TB cases by 21%, from 237 to 187 per lakh population—almost twice the global pace of decline. Yet, in 2024, one in every four people who fell ill with TB worldwide still lived in India.

- TDG NETWORK

Representative image.

That hard contrast defines the TB story in 2025: real progress, but a long road ahead.

The WHOS Global TB Report 2025 estimates that 10.7 million people fell ill with TB in 2024 and 1.23 million died, even as global incidence finally dropped by about 2% after the COVID-erasetbacks. TB remains the world’s top infectious disease killer.

India’s National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP) has pushed hard: expanding rapid molecular tests, rolling out the Ni-kshay portal for real-time case tracking, and providing monthly nutritional support to patients under the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana. Treatment coverage has climbed above 90%, supported by community campaigns such as the Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan and local “Ni-kshay Mitra” donors.