About TB Funding via USAID

The Importance of TB Funding

The fight against tuberculosis (TB) relies on sustained investments in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. In 2023 (the current year of expenditure reporting for WHO data sources), total funding for tuberculosis care and prevention reached US$ 5.7 billion, with 21% (US$ 1.2 billion) coming from external sources. U.S. contributions account for over 55% of the total external funding, highlighting their critical role in the global TB response.

Impact of the USAID Funding Freeze

Disruptions in this funding—as with the recent USAID funding freeze—can have devastating impact, delaying diagnosis and care, increasing transmission, and leading to preventable deaths. This funding freeze has directly impacted critical USAID-funded TB programs across 26 high-burden countries, disrupting essential services such as TB diagnosis, treatment support, and prevention efforts.

USAID's Commitment to Fighting TB

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a leader in the global fight against tuberculosis. Since 2000, USAID has helped provide quality TB diagnosis and treatment services to more than 18 million people. USAID's TB program works in over 50 countries worldwide, focusing on preventing and treating TB, especially in high-burden countries.

The Impact of TB Funding

USAID's TB program funding supports critical interventions including:

• Providing daily TB medication to millions of patients
• Supporting TB testing and diagnosis services
• Training healthcare workers in TB prevention and treatment
• Implementing innovative approaches to find missing TB cases
• Addressing drug-resistant TB
• Supporting research for new TB tools and approaches

Current Funding Challenges

The recent funding freeze threatens to reverse decades of progress in the fight against TB. The reduction impacts:

• Access to TB diagnosis and treatment services
• Support for healthcare workers involved in TB response
• Ability to find and treat new TB cases
• Progress against drug-resistant TB
• Research and innovation for TB control

Why TB Funding Matters

TB remains one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases, killing 1.3 million people in 2022 alone. Without adequate funding, progress against TB will stall, and more lives will be lost. The COVID-19 pandemic has already set back TB control efforts by several years, making continued funding even more critical.

TB Program Impact Statistics