A promotional poster released by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency for tuberculosis prevention / Courtesy of Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency

Tuberculosis cases in Korea fell for the 14th consecutive year in 2025, but infections among older residents reached a record high, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday.

Korea recorded 17,070 tuberculosis cases in 2025, a 4.9 percent decline from a year earlier. The notification rate fell to 33.5 cases per 100,000 people, down from 35.2 in 2024. Since 2011 — when cases peaked at 50,491, or 100.8 per 100,000, the highest on record — the caseload has dropped by 66.2 percent, an average annual decline of 7.5 percent, according to the KDCA.

The decline, however, obscures a deepening structural shift. Patients 65 and older totaled 10,669 in 2025, up 1.3 percent from 10,534 a year earlier, and accounted for 62.5 percent of all tuberculosis cases — a share that has climbed each year since 2021, when it stood at 51.0 percent.

Among those 65 and older, the notification rate reached 101.5 cases per 100,000 — 6.4 times the rate among younger people.

The KDCA attributed the increase in elderly cases to the growing size of Korea's senior population, which reached 10.51 million in 2025, up from 9.96 million in 2024.

Korea also ranks second among the 38 OECD members in tuberculosis incidence and third in mortality, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2025.

Japan, the other major OECD economy in Northeast Asia with a comparably aging society, has achieved a substantially lower tuberculosis burden, even as it confronts comparable demographic pressures.

According to a report released by Japan’s Tuberculosis Surveillance Center, Japan notified 10,096 tuberculosis cases in 2023, for a rate of 8.1 per 100,000. The figure is roughly one-quarter of Korea's 2025 rate.

The KDCA said it will continue operating three main programs, including a mobile tuberculosis screening for elderly individuals. It identified 881 patients across roughly 1.15 million examinations over six years, a detection rate that more than doubles the national average.

Source: Korea Times News