Tuberculosis - Annual Epidemiological Report for 2021

For 2021, the 30 countries in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) reported a total of 33 527 tuberculosis (TB) cases (7.4 per 100 000 population). The overall notification rate continued to fall, as did most country-specific rates. However, the EU/EEA is not on track to reach the goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030. The decline in total case numbers and notification rates in 2021 should be interpreted with caution, given the potential impact of measures put in place to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic across the EU/EEA on TB clinical services and surveillance.

Rifampicin resistance/multidrug resistance (RR/MDR) was reported for 4.2% of TB cases with drug susceptibility testing results reported. Extensive drug resistance (XDR) was reported for 54.4% of MDR TB cases that underwent second-line drug susceptibility testing.

HIV status was reported by 21 countries for 70.2% of their total TB cases, and of TB cases with known HIV status, 3.8% were HIV-positive. Treatment success was achieved in 71.7% of all TB cases notified in 2020, 53.5% of HIV-co-infected TB cases notified in 2020, 51.7% of RR/MDR TB cases notified in 2019, and 66.7% of XDR TB cases notified in 2018.