After years of reliance on donor funding, many high TB burden countries now face a stark reality: As G7 nations slash aid, they must do more with less. But there's a silver lining. Innovations developed in the global south — such as affordable molecular tests, tongue swab sampling, and AI-powered screening tools — are ready to drive equitable TB diagnosis at scale.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis was the leading infectious killer among humans. For a few years, COVID-19 took the top spot. Today, TB is back as the leading infectious cause of mortality, claiming 1.23 million lives in 2024. And things are likely to get worse due to cuts to development assistance by the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations.
A recent analysis done across 26 high-burden countries, which account for 80% of the global TB burden, showed that termination of aid funding could result in as many as 10.6 million additional TB cases and 2.2 million additional TB deaths during the period 2025-2030.