In Kenya, about 97,000 people were
diagnosed with TB in 2024, according to the Ministry of Health.
The WHO said that while efforts to combat TB have saved over 79 million lives since 2000, the drastic funding cuts are threatening to reverse these gains.
At least more than one million people are diagnosed with TB every year around the world. In Kenya, about 97,000 people were diagnosed with TB in 2024.
TB is the world’s deadliest infectious
disease.
In a press statement, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General said: “The huge gains the world has made against TB over the past 20 years are now at risk as cuts to funding start to disrupt access to services for prevention, screening, and treatment for people with TB, but we cannot give up on the concrete commitments that world leaders made at the UN General Assembly just 18 months ago to accelerate work to end TB,” he said.
“WHO is committed to working with all donors, partners and affected countries to mitigate the impact of funding cuts and find innovative solutions.”
WHO said that severe disruptions in the TB response are seen across several of the highest-burden countries following the funding cuts.
Countries in the WHO African Region are experiencing the greatest impact, followed by countries in the WHO South-East Asian and Western Pacific Regions. Twenty-seven countries are facing crippling breakdowns in their TB response, with devastating consequences.
WHO further said that the 2025 funding cuts
further exacerbate an already existing underfunding for global TB response. In
2023, only 26 per cent of the US$22 billion annually needed for TB prevention
and care was available, leaving a massive shortfall. TB research is in crisis,
receiving just one-fifth of the US$5 billion annual target in 2022—severely
delaying advancements in diagnostics, treatments and vaccines.
In her statement, Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global Programme on TB and Lung Health, said: “This urgent call is timely and underscores the necessity of swift, decisive action to sustain global TB progress and prevent setbacks that could cost lives.”
She added: “Investing in ending TB is not only a moral imperative but also an economic necessity—every dollar spent on prevention and treatment yields an estimated US$43 in economic returns.”
Rising drug resistance especially across Europe and the ongoing conflicts across the Middle-East, Africa and Eastern Europe, has also been identified to further exacerbate the situation for the most vulnerable in the fight against TB.
WHO is leading efforts to accelerate TB vaccine development through the TB Vaccine Accelerator Council, but progress remains at risk without urgent financial commitments.
