Menzies NA, Quaife M, Allwood BW, et al. - Many of the survivors of tuberculosis disease face ongoing disability and increased mortality risks. Researchers herein sought to report on the global burden of tuberculosis, inclusive of post tuberculosis morbidity and mortality.

• A hypothetical cohort of individuals developing tuberculosis in 2019, including pulmonary and extrapulmonary disease, was built.

• Per estimates, incident tuberculosis disease contributed to 122 (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 98–151) million DALYs globally in 2019, with 58 (38–83) million DALYs attributed to post-tuberculosis sequelae, representing 47% (95% UI 37–57) of the total burden estimate.

• Overall there appeared a substantial additive effect of post tuberculosis sequelae to the overall disease burden caused by tuberculosis.

• Most previous policy analyses did not account for this hitherto unquantified burden.

• To avoid the potential misallocation of funding, political attention, and research effort resulting from continued neglect of this issue, researchers emphasize better accounting of post tuberculosis in future policy analyses and burden estimates.