Tuberculosis replaced COVID-19 to become the top cause for infectious disease-related deaths in 2023, according to a World Health Organization report published on Tuesday, highlighting the challenges in the global effort in eradicating the disease.

Axar.az reports that last year about 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed, meaning they could access suitable treatment – the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995 - up from 7.5 million reported in 2022, according to the UN agency.

The data shows that eradicating tuberculosis is still a distant goal as the fight against the disease faces persistent challenges such as significant underfunding, according to the report.

"The fact that TB still kills and sickens so many people is an outrage, when we have the tools to prevent it, detect it and treat it," WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters.

While the number of deaths related to the disease fell to 1.25 million in 2023 from 1.32 million in 2022, the total number of people falling ill rose slightly to an estimated 10.8 million in 2023.