Methods used by WHO to estimate the global burden of TB disease

Overview

This technical appendix describes methods used by WHO in 2022 to estimate the following: tuberculosis (TB) incidence and mortality for the period 2000–2021; TB incidence and mortality disaggregated by age and sex for 2021; proportion of TB cases with rifampicin-resistant (RR) TB and incidence of RR-TB for the period of 2015-2021; proportion of RR-TB cases with fluoroquinolone resistance (pre-extensively drug-resistant TB, pre-XDR-TB) in 2021; number of deaths averted by TB interventions from 2000-2021; number of household contacts of bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB cases aged under 5 years and eligible for TB preventive therapy (TPT) in 2015-2021; and attributable risk for TB in 2021. Code for implementing the described methods is available in a public repository.