WHO: Funding cuts threaten global progress against TB
Chris Dall, MA13 minutes ago.
Tuberculosis
New data released today show that 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2025, and 1.13 million people died from the respiratory disease.
And yet, those figures still represent a small measure of progress against the world’s leading infectious disease killer, which is spread by bacteria that primarily affect the lungs.
According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) latest global TB report, the 1.13 million deaths in 2025 mark a 4% reduction from 2024 and a 35% drop from 2015. The number of new TB cases in 2025 was also slightly lower than the previous year, and the incidence rate dropped by 1.6%.
The 35% reduction in TB deaths means the world has reached the first milestone of the WHO’s End TB Strategy, although 5 years later than hoped for. TB deaths in Africa and Europe have been cut in half since 2015, while deaths in two high-burden countries—India and China—have fallen by 35%. But the world is still far short of the 2035 goal of a 90% reduction in TB deaths compared with 2015.
The report characterizes 2025 as a year of “stability or small improvements in TB services and epidemic trends” following the setbacks that occurred from 2020 through 2024, when many countries had to shift resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. And the development of new diagnostic tests, shorter treatment regimens, and vaccine candidates is raising hopes of even greater reductions in TB incidence and deaths in the coming years.
WHO officials warn, however, that another “external shock”—a 14% drop in international donor funding for the TB response—could lead to further setbacks.
“Innovation alone will not end TB,” Tereza Kasaeva, MD, PhD, director of WHO’s Department for HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitis and Sexually Transmitted Infections, said at a press briefing. “This is time for urgent actions and continued efforts.”
International funding cuts
Funding for TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and research has long fallen short of where it needs to be. While the $6.6 billion raised in 2025 was an increase from the previous year, it’s still well below the 2027 target of $22 billion per year set by United Nations member states.The Trump administration’s dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was a major blow to international donor funding, which declined from $1.1 billion in 2024 to $0.94 billion in 2025. Prior to 2025, the United States was a top donor to TB efforts, and USAID was the lead implementing agency, providing funding for healthcare workers, support services for patients, and TB screening and active case-finding efforts.
According to an analysis by KFF, 79% of USAID awards for TB-related services were terminated in 2025. But funding from other countries has also been reduced.
“A 14% decline in international donor funding for TB services in 2025 threatens to slow progress at a time when greater investment is urgently needed,” research and advocacy group TB Alliance said in a statement.
WHO official Katherine Floyd, PhD, said the data show no clear-cut impact yet from international funding cuts. And Kasaeva noted that, of the 23 countries that are most exposed to changes in international funding, 13 increased funding for TB last year. Overall, domestic funding for TB rose from $4.9 billion in 2025 to $5.6 billion in 2025.
Kasaeva said these increases in domestic funding, especially in the low-income countries most affected by TB, are encouraging. “These trends should continue,” she said.
Other encouraging news from the report is that 42% of people with drug-resistant TB received the six-month, all oral treatment regimen, up from only 18% in 2024. This newer treatment regimen is significantly shorter than the old regimen, which lasted up to 24 months and included painful injections and drugs with toxic side effects.
“This represents a major advance in expanding access to more effective, people-friendly treatments that can help more people recover while reducing the burden of care on individuals and health systems,” said TB Alliance, which developed one of the drugs in the shortened regimen.
Hopes for a new vaccine
The report also highlights the pipeline of new TB diagnostics, treatments, and vaccine candidates. Among the innovations is a new near point-of-care molecular test that can detect TB from tongue swabs instead of sputum, which can be difficult for babies and the elderly to produce. Experts hope easier-to-use and less expensive diagnostic tests will enable high-burden countries to do more active case-finding and start treating patients as early possible.At a media briefing held yesterday by the Gates Foundation, a panel of clinicians and TB researchers agreed that progress is being made in several areas. What’s generating the most excitement is the M72 vaccine, one of 16 TB vaccine candidates in the pipeline. By 2028, investigators will know if M72, which is being tested in a phase 3 trial in South Africa, provides sufficient protection against the disease in older children and adults.
The only licensed TB vaccine, the bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine, was introduced in the 1920s. And while it works well in children under 5 years, it provides little protection for older children and adults.
“M72 could be the first new TB vaccine in more than a century, and one that protects adults and adolescents, who drive most of the transmission,” said Nina Russell, MD, director of TB & HIV research and development at the Gates Foundation, which is funding the phase 3 trial of M72.
But the excitement was mixed with trepidation, given the cuts in international funding. Russell said developing new tools like diagnostics and vaccines, and making them accessible, will require continued financing, political commitment, and strong partnerships.
“Scientific breakthroughs only matter if they reach the people who need them,” Russell said. “That means planning from the outset for affordability, manufacturing, regulatory, and policy requirements, as well as country readiness.”
Mike Frick of the Treatment Action Group said it’s a moment of “progress and peril.”
“We're at this place where the science could really deliver, and we may not have the resources we need to deliver that science to people with TB or at risk of TB who need to benefit from it,” Frick said.
