The United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) warned Wednesday that severe funding cuts jeopardize decades of progress in the global fight against Tuberculosis. The warning comes amid rising concerns globally that reduced financial support, especially from the US, could stall or reverse any gains in tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
WHO noted that the funding cuts would threaten efforts to expand access to new tuberculosis treatment, including drug regimens and improved diagnostic tools, while also worsening health disparities, particularly in low and middle-income countries.
The US has historically been the largest donor to global tuberculosis programs. The government has provided $200-250 million annually in bilateral funding at the country level, with most of the amount coming from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). In a wave of terse emails to thousands of health groups, tuberculosis clinics, and refugee camps in the last week of February, the Trump administration ended funding for some 5,800 global health programs.
Dr. Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global Programme on TB and Lung Health highlighted the impact, saying, “Any disruption to TB services – whether financial, political or operational – can have devastating and often fatal consequences for millions worldwide,”
This also comes after a federal judge temporarily blocked the National Institutes of Health from cutting research funding in 22 states in early February. Additionally, a US federal judge stayed Trump’s order to cut transgender youth medical funding in the same month. Furthermore, the US Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must unfreeze foreign aid payments to nonprofit aid groups already completed on the government’s behalf.