Approximately 54,000 individuals lost their lives to tuberculosis in South Africa in 2024, while 249,000 people were infected with the illne...
Approximately 54,000 individuals lost their lives to tuberculosis in South Africa in 2024, while 249,000 people were infected with the illness, as per the latest data released by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Approximately 54,000 individuals lost their lives to tuberculosis in South Africa in 2024, as reported on Wednesday in conjunction with the World Health Organization's most recent global TB Report. This reflects a gradual decline in tuberculosis-related fatalities in recent years.
Two decades ago, during the height of the HIV crisis, tuberculosis resulted in approximately 200,000 deaths annually in the region. The two health crises are strongly connected because unmanaged HIV significantly raises the likelihood of developing tuberculosis. As a result, as South Africa's HIV treatment initiatives expanded, there was a corresponding decline in tuberculosis cases. In 2024, out of the 54,000 tuberculosis-related deaths, 29,000 occurred among individuals with HIV, while 25,000 were among those without the virus.
The number of individuals contracting TB in the country is also on the decrease. New data shows that 249,000 people were affected by TB in 2024, down from 270,000 in 2023 and 292,000 in 2022. Similarly, current statistics are significantly lower than they were two decades ago, when the figure frequently exceeded 600,000.
A long-standing issue is that not all individuals suffering from TB are receiving proper treatment. Approximately 184,000 people were diagnosed with TB in South Africa in 2024—accounting for 74% of the 249,000 who became ill. Put another way, around 65,000 people who contracted TB in the country during the previous year were not diagnosed and therefore did not get the necessary treatment.
To identify more individuals with TB in a shorter time, the government has set an ambitious goal of conducting five million TB tests between April 2025 and March 2026. Data obtained by Spotlight and GroundUp via a request under the Protection of Access to Information Act shows that approximately 1.75 million tests were carried out during the six months from April to September. This indicates that the government is not on track to achieve the five million target. Nevertheless, it appears probable that more TB tests will be conducted this year than in any other year over the past decade.
Similar to past years, the WHO has released broad confidence intervals for many of their main figures. For instance, the real number of individuals affected by TB is estimated to be between 155,000 and 365,000. These wide confidence intervals indicate a considerable level of uncertainty regarding the figures.
However, the WHO's estimates typically align closely with those from Thembisa, the primary mathematical model for TB in South Africa. As per the latest Thembisa figures, released in 2024, approximately 62,000 TB-related deaths occurred among adults between mid-2023 and mid-2024—slightly more than the WHO's estimate and without including children. Updated projections from the Thembisa model are anticipated soon.
Both the WHO and Thembisa's projections for TB fatalities are significantly higher than the Statistics South Africa report, which recorded approximately 20,000 TB-related deaths in 2022 (the latest year with StatsSA data). Although this difference appears substantial, there is a clear reason behind it. The StatsSA numbers are generally based on the causes listed on death certificates, and there is strong evidence indicating that HIV and TB are often underreported on these documents. In contrast, the WHO and Thembisa figures are modeled estimates that use various data sources to determine a more accurate count of actual deaths.
The global picture
Globally, it is estimated that 1.23 million people died from TB in 2024, marking TB as the top cause of death due to a single infectious disease. Approximately 10.7 million individuals contracted TB, with 8.3 million of them receiving a diagnosis.
The heart of the worldwide tuberculosis outbreak is still India. The nation accounted for 25% of all TB cases in 2024, followed by Indonesia at 10%, the Philippines at 6.8%, China at 6.5%, and Pakistan at 6.3%. In numerical terms, all these nations have significantly bigger TB outbreaks compared to South Africa.
With 389 cases per 100,000 individuals, South Africa's rate is higher than that of all five countries listed above, except for the Philippines. South Africa is ranked 12th in the world for the number of cases per 100,000 people.
It comes as no surprise that South Africa is still included on the WHO's list of nations facing a significant TB burden and also on the list of countries with a high incidence of drug-resistant TB. In 2024, it was estimated that there were 14,000 cases of drug-resistant TB in the country.
Impact of aid cuts
The World Health Organization's latest report primarily focuses on 2024, thereby largely anticipating the sudden reductions in health-related aid and research funding from the United States in 2025.
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However, even before this year's reductions, the WHO and other organizations had already sounded alarms regarding TB funding. "Financial support for the TB response is still significantly insufficient and has remained stagnant," as stated in the latest WHO report.
The WHO Report states that funding for TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment reached $5.9 billion in 2024, while support for TB research was $1.2 billion in 2023. These amounts represent 27% and 24% respectively of the global goals of $22 billion and $5 billion per year by 2027.
"Starting from 2025, reductions in funding present a significant challenge," stated Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, Director of the WHO's Department for HIV, TB, Hepatitis, and STIs, in a WHO statement. "Modeling studies have already indicated that prolonged cuts to international donor support could lead to as many as 2 million additional deaths and 10 million more people contracting TB between 2025 and 2035. Even temporary interruptions in funding could result in hundreds of thousands of extra fatalities. It is crucial that nations increase their domestic financial commitments in addition to international aid," she added.
Note: You can access the complete WHO World TB Report here , the South Africa country profile is here , and more detailed datasets, such as those utilized to create the graph in this article, are available for download here .
Copyright 2025 spotlight. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (okay1).
Tagged: South Africa, Health and Medicine, International Organizations and Africa, Tuberculosis, Southern Africa, External Relations
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