World Health Assembly: Countries Support Development of a Post-2030 Strategy to End TB

21 May 2026

The Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly was held on 18–23 May 2026 in Geneva, Switzerland

On 21 May 2026, the 79th World Health Assembly endorsed a decision requesting the World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to develop a post-2030 TB strategy, in consultation with Member States and relevant stakeholders, to be submitted to the 81st World Health Assembly in 2028.

The new strategy will help guide the future global TB response, considering emerging scientific advances and current epidemiological trends. The strategy will reinforce strong alignment with primary health care, advancing universal health coverage, and global health security agendas, in preparation for the 2028 United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB.

The Assembly also discussed a report on the implementation of the current End TB Strategy highlighting both progress and challenges. Between 2000 and 2024, expanded treatment of people with TB saved an estimated 83 million lives, while 2024 marked the first post-pandemic decline in TB incidence and the highest-ever recorded access levels to essential TB services.

Despite these gains, TB remains a leading infectious killer, and global targets under the End TB Strategy and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development remain off track. This is due to chronic underfunding, pandemic-related disruptions, inequality, conflict, and climate-related displacement, and vulnerability.

Source: World Health Organization