Global deaths from tuberculosis (TB) fell by 3 percent in 2024 to an estimated 1.23 million, marking the first decline since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). But the UN health agency warned that funding shortfalls and shrinking donor support threaten to reverse recent gains.
In its annual Global TB Report released Wednesday, WHO said overall TB cases declined by nearly 2 percent compared with 2023. The agency credited expanded access to testing and treatment, which reached a record 8.3 million newly diagnosed patients last year. Treatment success rates also rose to 71 percent, up from 68 percent in 2023.
Despite the progress, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that the fight against TB remains fragile. “Declines in the global burden of TB and progress in testing, treatment, social protection and research are all welcome news after years of setbacks, but progress is not victory,” Tedros said. “The fact that TB continues to claim over a million lives each year despite being preventable and curable is simply unconscionable.”
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WHO said only $5.9 billion was available globally last year for TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment far below the agency’s annual target of $22 billion by 2027. Tedros warned that the current funding gap could “reverse hard-won gains” in the fight to end the world’s second-deadliest infectious disease after COVID-19.
The outlook darkened further after the United States withdrew from WHO in January, forcing a 21 percent cut in the agency’s spending plans. The Trump administration’s broader decision to slash foreign aid, particularly through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has raised fears among global health advocates about reduced support for TB programs.
Tereza Kasaeva, head of WHO’s Global TB Programme, said long-term funding cuts could have devastating consequences.
“If international donor support continues to decline, we could see up to 2 million additional deaths and 10 million new TB infections between 2025 and 2035,” Kasaeva warned.
While TB deaths in 2024 were 29 percent lower than in 2015, the world remains far off-track from WHO’s goal to cut fatalities by 75 percent by 2025 and by 90 percent by 2030.
WHO estimates that sustained international investment helped prevent 3.65 million deaths from TB last year. But with fewer resources, the agency fears that progress made since 2020 — when the pandemic severely disrupted diagnosis and treatment — could quickly erode.
“Global health is only as strong as our commitment to fund it,” Tedros said, urging governments and donors to recommit to ending TB “within our lifetime.”