Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring report in Europe 2019

This report provides an overview of the latest Tuberculosis (TB) epidemiological situation and is launched jointly by the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

During the last five years, in the WHO European Region, TB mortality rates have fallen on average by 10% per year, which is the fastest decline observed in the world, European Region has also documented the fastest decline in TB incidence among all WHO Regions.

Despite the notable progress achieved in the fight against TB and the subsequent constant trend of decline in incidence, TB and Multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB still poses a public health threat in most countries and areas within the Region and should not be underestimated. While in some countries, including Eastern European countries, the MDR-TB rates are decreasing in absolute numbers, European Region still carries about 23% of the global MDR-TB burden.

Despite universal treatment coverage for TB and MDR-TB patients, the treatment success rate in the Region is still below the 85% and 75% Regional targets respectively. Nevertheless, comparing data collected in 2016 to 2018, a slow but sustainable increase is documented in both, incident TB and MDR-TB cohorts, from 75.8% to 77.2% and from 48.7% to 57.2% respectively.