ECDC publishes annual epidemiological report on TB for 2019

On 13 September 2021, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) published the tuberculosis (TB) annual epidemiological report for 2019.

In 2019, 29 countries in the EU and EEA reported a total of 49,752 TB cases, a notification rate of 9.6 cases per 100,000 of the population. Despite a decline in the overall TB notification rate, the EU and EEA are not on track to reach the goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) was reported for 3.4% of TB cases with drug susceptibility testing results reported. Extensive drug resistance (XDR) was reported for 22.4% of MDR TB cases that underwent second-line drug susceptibility testing.

In total, 19 countries reported HIV status for 16,088, or 78%, of 20,620 TB cases in 2019. Of cases with known HIV status, 502, or 3.1%, were reported as HIV positive. Among the 16 countries with at least 50% reporting completeness for HIV status, co-infection cases were highest in Belgium (8.7%), Estonia (11.3%), Hungary (9.4%), Ireland (9.4%), and Portugal (11.0%). Compared with 2018, there was a decrease in the number of countries that reported the HIV status of TB cases, and only 32.3% of all TB cases notified in 2019 had known HIV status.

Source: ECDC, 14 September 2021