This year is a critical year for all of us in the global fight to end TB as we countdown to reach the UN High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB targets which the international community agreed to meet by the end of December.
Ongoing COVID-19 efforts and a catastrophic funding gap of US$ 9 billion threatens to hamper global progress to combat TB. This is why we have chosen "Invest to End TB. Save Lives" as the theme for this year's World TB Day campaign, which officially starts today.
The Stop TB Partnership and all partners are calling on all those involved in the fight against TB to unite under this overarching theme and sound the alarm that the low levels of funding for the TB response year after year cannot continue nor be accepted anymore. Of the US$ 15 billion annual funding for TB promised by world leaders at the UNHLM in 2018, less than half has been delivered. World leaders must step up and triple or quadruple the funding to save lives and end TB by 2030.
