Tuberculosis in North America
How Tuberculosis affects 3 countries in North America.
| # | Country | Share (%) |
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Across the 3 countries in North America tracked in this dataset, tuberculosis accounts for an average of 0.0% of total deaths. The regional average of 0.0% falls below the global average of 1.5%, suggesting that North America has a comparatively lower burden of tuberculosis mortality than the world overall. In North America, tuberculosis mortality is comparatively low, benefiting from advanced medical infrastructure, robust screening programmes, and pharmaceutical innovation, though access remains uneven.
North America has among the world's highest health expenditure per capita, yet faces distinctive mortality challenges including the opioid epidemic, firearm violence, rising metabolic disease, and significant health disparities linked to race and income. Within North America, significant variation exists. Canada records the highest share at 0.1% of total deaths, while Bermuda has the lowest at 0.01%. This 0.0 percentage-point spread reflects differences in exposure, health system capacity, demographic structure, and risk factor prevalence across the region. Country-level pages provide detailed mortality breakdowns, time trends, and comparisons for each nation.
TB control rests on early case detection through symptom screening and molecular diagnostics (GeneXpert MTB/RIF), directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS) for drug-susceptible TB, and newer regimens like BPaL (bedaquiline-pretomanid-linezolid) for resistant strains. The BCG vaccine, developed over a century ago, provides partial protection against severe childhood TB but limited efficacy against pulmonary TB in adults. Preventive therapy with isoniazid or rifapentine for latent TB infection is critical for high-risk groups, particularly people living with HIV.
The mortality estimates presented on this page are derived from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). The GBD synthesizes data from vital registration systems, verbal autopsies, cancer registries, and surveillance networks across more than 200 countries and territories. Death rates are expressed per 100,000 population and are age-standardized, which adjusts for differences in age structure between populations so that comparisons across countries and over time reflect genuine differences in mortality risk rather than demographic composition.
The dataset typically covers the period from 1990 to 2023, although availability varies by country and cause. When interpreting the figures for tuberculosis in North America, note that higher age-standardized rates indicate a greater mortality burden independent of whether a country's population is older or younger. Trends over time reveal whether public health interventions, economic development, and health system improvements have reduced or increased the toll of this condition in the region.
The cause-of-death categories used on this page follow the Global Burden of Disease cause hierarchy, a standardized classification that groups individual ICD-coded causes into clinically meaningful categories. The "share of deaths" metric shows what percentage of all deaths in a given country or region are attributed to tuberculosis. A rising share does not necessarily mean more people are dying from this cause — it may reflect success in reducing competing causes of death. Always examine both absolute rates and shares for a complete picture of mortality patterns in North America.