Mar 25, 2026
3 min read
One in five people who start TB treatment in the EU/EEA are not tested for a year, a critical gap that also exists in children under 15 years of age.
One in five people starting TB treatment in the EU/EEA are not tested after one year, a critical difference for children under 15 years of age.
With information from ECDC |View
The European region, which includes 53 countries in Europe and Central Asia, including the 30 countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area (EU/EEA), has not achieved regional and global targets for ending tuberculosis on two counts: ongoing detection problems, with one in five cases of tuberculosis undiagnosed or unreported, and rates of drug resistance that remain much higher than in other regions.
The data are consistent with the joint report of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO), called "Surveillance and surveillance of tuberculosis in Europe 2026".
According to the ECDC press office, although TB incidence in the WHO European Region has fallen by 39% and mortality by 49% since 2015, both figures are well below the 2025 TB strategy targets of 50% and 75% respectively.
Similar to the European Region, TB cases in the EU/EEA have decreased by 33% and deaths by 17%;However, most EU/EEA countries will not reach their targets by 2030, resulting in thousands of new infections and preventable deaths.
In 2024, 161,569 new TB cases were reported in 51 of the region's 53 countries, but only 79% of the estimated new and relapsed cases were reported in the WHO European Region.This means that many people with TB were undiagnosed or unreported.
This gap has direct consequences: undiagnosed people cannot access treatment and continue to spread the disease into their communities.
In the EU/EEA the progress is insufficient.Although reporting rates have stabilized, gaps in diagnosis and lack of follow-up persist due to health system limitations.
One in five people starting TB treatment in the EU/EEA are not tested after one year, a significant gap that also exists for children under 15 years of age.These data highlight the need for efforts for early detection and close follow-up once people are diagnosed.
'Over the past ten years, EU and EEA countries have seen a 33% reduction in tuberculosis cases and a 17% reduction in deaths.This success is the result of the strong commitment of the Member States and our collaboration," said Dr Pamela Randi-Wagner, Director of ECDC.
“Continued efforts and collaboration for early detection and ongoing surveillance to support people already diagnosed with tuberculosis are needed to reach the 2030 targets.”
"One out of five people with tuberculosis in the European region is not recognized by the health services. This not only shows a lack of knowledge, but a missed opportunity for early treatment, prevention of disease and elimination of transmission," said Dr. Hans Henry P. Kluge, Director of WHO for Europe.
A call to action
The ECDC and the WHO Regional Office for Europe call on Member States and European institutions to act urgently:
- expanding TB prevention and early detection to close the one in five diagnosis gap, including high-risk and marginalized groups, including incarcerated people;
- Expand access to rapid diagnosis and drug susceptibility testing recommended by WHO, especially in areas with high prevalence of disease;
- expanding short, all-oral regimens for drug-resistant TB to improve patient outcomes and reduce post-treatment losses;
- strengthen the cooperation of tuberculosis and HIV services and increase antiretroviral therapy for co-infected people;
- Improving reporting on epidemiological surveillance of HIV co-infection, TB in prisons and treatment outcomes to inform evidence-based policies and progress towards TB elimination.
Spain failed to reach the target
The situation in Spain is similar to the European situationThe Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE) said in a statement that according to the National Epidemiological Surveillance Network, 4,270 cases were reported in 2024 (a notification rate of 8.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), which showed an increase of 8.3% compared to the previous year's rate, which had 3,944 registered cases.
This development makes it impossible to achieve the goal of reducing the incidence by 50% between 2015, which was 10.6 per 100,000, to the expected 5.3 in 2025, and makes it difficult to achieve the 80% reduction between 2015 and 2030, when 2.00000 should reach 2.00000.
According to the autonomous community, the rates vary between 3.8 in Navarre, 10.6 in the Basque Country.11.5 in Galicia and 14.4 in Catalonia, four communities with a higher notification rate than in 2015. In addition, the expert institute notes, the greatest increase in cases is among children under 15 (sign of recent infection) and people born in another country (sign of risk).) which currently accounts for about 50% of new reported cases.An increase in cases in the pediatric population has also been observed in other EU neighboring countries.
Regarding the monitoring indicators of the tuberculosis prevention and control plan for 2024, the treatment success rate is 79.3 in cases sensitive to the first drug reported in 2023, while the treatment abandonment rate is 3.2%.The percentage of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis reported in 2024 for the contact studies implemented is 83.3%.
"Monitoring indicators and the national program show us that we are still far from agreed measures to combat this disease," the experts warned.
They called for improved monitoring and surveillance of treatment by targeting directly observed treatment (DOT) to people with risk factors for non-adherence.
De igual modo, seguir mejorando la calidad de la vigilancia que asegure el estudio y tratamiento de todos los contactos infectados y la fiabilidad de los datos para que puedan servir como información para la acción.
Information from ECDC |EEA
