The Global Fund forms partnership to find missing cases of TB

The countries involved account for 55% of all missed cases of TB and multidrug-resistant TB

The Global Fund, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Stop TB Partnership and 13 countries with a high burden of TB have launched a program to find and treat an additional 1.5 million missing cases of TB by the end of 2019.

The countries – Bangladesh, Congo DR, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Ukraine, Kenya, Mozambique and India – account for 55% of all missed cases of TB and multidrug-resistant TB (see table).

Table: Countries with missing TB cases

Source: Guidance on TB Catalytic Investment Funding (Global Fund) * Catalytic funding is not allocated to India.

In a news release issued on 9 October from the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Guadalajara, Mexico, the Global Fund said that “the new initiative is critically important to stopping the spread of TB and to reaching the global goal of ending TB as an epidemic by 2030.”

According to the news release, the new effort seeks to support a combination of innovative and targeted programs, promote better use of data and evidence, and expand the most successful approaches to find more missing cases of TB.

The Global Fund said that it is investing $190 million in the initiative. The money, which comes from the Fund’s catalytic investments, had been announced previously. The $190 million includes:

$115 million in matching funds designed to support country-led programs;
a $10 million strategic initiative to help technical partners develop new tools based on best practices; and
a $65 million multi-country investment that will address cross-border programs such as responding to drug-resistant TB among migrant workers, and providing treatment to refugees and internally displaced people.

GFO previously reported these investments here and here.

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