Tuberculosis (TB)

Tuberculosis kills more people annually than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined, cementing its status as the deadliest bacterial infection in history. In 2025, it caused approximately 1.3 million deaths among HIV-negative individuals, with 10.6 million new cases reported globally. This staggering toll surpasses the mortality of #10 Kidney Diseases, which claims a similar number of lives but affects a smaller fraction of the world's population. India, Indonesia, and China bear the highest burden, accounting for nearly half of all cases. Drug-resistant TB strains are a growing crisis, threatening to undo decades of progress. Despite being preventable and curable, a quarter of the world's population carries latent TB, underscoring the need for intensified screening and treatment programs.