The Stop TB Partnership unveiled a costed plan for the world to end tuberculosis (TB), the second leading infectious disease killer in the world, after COVID-19. The Global Plan to End TB 2023-2030 (‘Global Plan’) outlines the priority actions and estimated financial resources needed to end TB as a global health threat by 2030. It also lays out how, from now up to 2030, a global investment of US$250 billion could save millions of lives through early diagnosis and treatment of 50 million people with TB; the development, approval and distribution of a new TB vaccine; and the redoubling of efforts so that emerging crises like the COVID-19 pandemic or conflicts, like the ongoing war in Ukraine, do not derail TB programs.
The total amount of funding needed to support the Global Plan’s ambitions is the equivalent of every person in the world donating US$4 per year for the next seven years. The economic return on this investment would amount to US$40 for every US$1 invested and as much as US$59 for every US$1 invested in low- and lower middle-income countries. If, instead, the status quo is maintained, TB is expected to continue to kill between 4,000-5,000 people every day, an additional 43 million people will develop TB and the cost in human life and disability would translate to a global economic loss of US$ 1 trillion.