India has cut deaths from tuberculosis by 38 per cent since 2015, a faster decline than the global average of 35 per cent, while 94 per cent of patients with drug-susceptible TB are now completing treatment successfully, according to the World Health Organization's Global Tuberculosis Report 2026, released on Thursday, November 12.

Source: ANI

The report estimates that India's TB mortality rate fell from 28 deaths per lakh population in 2015 to 18 per lakh in 2025. The figures draw on data from the Registrar General of India's Sample Registration System, community-based verbal autopsy assessments and the government's Ni-kshay programme portal.

What drove the decline

Officials credited the National TB Elimination Programme's intensified push: proactive case-finding with AI-enabled chest X-rays, rapid molecular diagnostics, prompt treatment initiation and differentiated care for the sickest patients, along with nutritional support through the Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana and the Ni-kshay Mitra initiative. About 96 per cent of the TB programme's funding requirement is now met from domestic resources.

Source: ANI

38%Fall in India's TB mortality since 2015
94%Treatment success rate, drug-susceptible TB
18 per lakhTB mortality rate in 2025, down from 28 in 2015
25 crore+People brought into TB screening under the Abhiyaan

The screening drive in numbers

Under the TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, between December 7, 2024 and November 8, 2026, more than 25 crore people were identified and brought within TB screening, over 11 crore chest X-rays and more than 3 crore nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) were conducted, and 48.64 lakh new TB cases were identified — including 14.97 lakh people who had no symptoms.

Source: ANI

The challenge that remains

India still accounts for roughly one in four of the world's TB cases. Globally, WHO estimates 10.6 million people developed TB in 2025 and 1.13 million died of it, and the End TB Strategy target of a 90 per cent cut in deaths by 2030 remains distant.

Health officials said the next phase keeps the focus on early detection in high-risk groups, preventive treatment and nutrition support, as India pursues its TB elimination goal. The November TB reading, for programme managers, is that the mortality curve is bending — but the case load means the screening drive cannot slow down.

Source: WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2026, via HealthAndMe