Tuberculosis is an illness that many of us think of as ancient history. This is far from the truth. One third of the world's population is currently infected with TB. In 2023, 10.8 million people fell ill with TB, and approximately 1.3 million people died from the disease, including people living with HIV. TB remains the deadliest infectious disease in the world, yet it is entirely preventable, treatable, and curable.

The disease disproportionately affects the poorest countries, with TB prevalence concentrated throughout Asia and Africa. What makes TB particularly devastating is its transmission rate: one person with active TB infects 15 people every year. However, there is hope. $1,000 spent on proven TB treatment programs averts approximately 125 Disability-Adjusted Life Years, equivalent to saving about four lives.

The gap between what we know works and what reaches those who need it most is where your donation has the most tremendous impact. Organizations working on TB elimination have demonstrated remarkable cost-effectiveness. This is one of the highest-impact giving opportunities available today

Despite decades of progress, governments have consistently underfunded TB efforts, and the situation has dramatically worsened in 2025. In 2023, only 26% of the $22 billion needed annually for TB prevention and care was available, resulting in a significant shortfall.

The United States has historically been the most significant bilateral funder of global TB efforts. The U.S. government provided approximately $200–250 million annually in bilateral TB funding—roughly one quarter of all international donor funding for TB. That commitment has now evaporated.

In January 2025, the Trump administration's freeze on USAID foreign aid and subsequent dismantling of the agency halted TB diagnosis and treatment services overnight across high-burden countries. TB programs that receive USAID funding had to close, leaving patients unable to obtain medicine or receive a diagnosis, and workers went unpaid.

Researchers project that U.S. funding cuts will result in an additional 2.5 million pediatric TB cases and 340,000 pediatric TB deaths in low- and middle-income countries between 2025 and 2034. We've seen this pattern before: during COVID-19, weakened TB services led to an estimated 700,000 excess deaths from TB between 2020 and 2023.

This is why private donations to effective organizations matter now more than ever. When governments retreat, individual donors become the difference between treatment and death.

Donation links can be seen below. Thank you.