WE CAN END TB! A feminist call to action for World TB Day 2026
On this World TB Day, Women4GlobalFund (W4GF), TB Women and GCTA urgently call on governments, technical and international partners to act decisively against the growing threat posed by escalating funding cuts and political retreat to the global TB response. At a time when armed conflicts, environmental crises, and fragile health systems are placing millions at greater risk, the world cannot afford to lose the hard-won progress made in the fight to end TB. The Global Fund still remains the largest international investor in TB programmes, and today more than ever, supporting pledge conversions of the 8th Replenishment by ensuring that this Grant Cycle 8 addresses the most pressing needs of communities and leaving no one behind, is now critical.
Tuberculosis remains the world’s leading infectious disease killer, continuing to devastate millions of lives particularly those living in poverty, communities in overcrowded or conflict-affected settings and people living with HIV. According to the WHO Global TB Report 2025, an estimated 10.7 million people developed TB in 2024. Women accounted for 35% of new cases, highlighting the persistent gender dimensions of the epidemic. TB also claimed 1.23 million lives, with women, children, and young adolescents representing nearly half of these deaths.
The burden of TB is not evenly distributed. The African and South-East Asia regions account for 71% of TB deaths among people living with and without HIV, while India alone represents 25% of these deaths, highlighting deep and persistent, structural, regional inequalities in access to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
While global trends show some stabilization in TB cases and deaths, alarming increases are being reported in highly vulnerable settings, particularly in prisons. In Ecuador, a Global Fund Transition country, TB incidence and mortality in prison settings are 123 times higher than in the general population, owing to overcrowding, militarisation, lack of social services, and fragile health systems (Observatorio TB Ecuador). This stark disparity underscores the urgent need to strengthen TB prevention, early detection, and treatment among populations facing structural vulnerability, including people deprived of liberty and people who use drugs, particularly in settings where rising security expenditures and tighter fiscal space are limiting growth in health and social spending.
