CIDRAP: TB Funding Cuts Could Cost Households up to $80 Billion

23 February 2026

CIDRAP news story

Abrupt reductions in global health funding for TB could impose tens of billions of dollars in additional costs on affected households in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with the heaviest burden falling on the poorest families, according to a modeling study published in PLOS Medicine.

Using linked epidemiologic and economic models tailored to 79 LMICs, which represent 91% of the world’s TB cases, US and UK researchers projected the household financial consequences of several funding-cut scenarios from 2025 through 2050. The scenarios reflect potential termination of USAID support — 80% to 90% of which was cut last year — and varying levels of reductions in contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria.

The study did not assess the impact of funding cuts on illness and deaths. TB is the world’s leading cause of infectious disease deaths, attributed to an estimated 1.25 million fatalities in 2023.

Read the full news story here.

Source: CIDRAP