WHO TB Report 2026: Domestic Funding Rises as Countries Protect Treatment Gains

The World Health Organization (WHO) released its Global Tuberculosis Report 2026 on 12 November 2026, reporting continued progress against tuberculosis (TB) alongside persistent funding and access gaps. In 2025, an estimated 10.6 million people developed TB and 1.1 million died from the disease. TB deaths have fallen by 35% since 2015, and TB treatment is estimated to have saved 86 million lives since 2000, reaching the first mortality milestone of WHO's End TB Strategy, five years later than planned.

Domestic funding for TB increased by 14% to US$ 5.6 billion between 2024 and 2025, partly offsetting a similar-scale decline in international financing. Since 2015, the global TB incidence rate has declined by 14%, far short of the 50% reduction milestone for 2025, and TB remains the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. The burden is concentrated in 30 countries accounting for 88% of cases, with steep regional variation: incidence fell 42% in the WHO European Region and 30% in the African Region since 2015, but rose in the Americas for the fifth consecutive year.

Access gaps remain significant. Of the estimated 10.6 million people who developed TB in 2025, 8.4 million were diagnosed, leaving about 2.2 million undiagnosed or unreported. Only 59% of newly diagnosed patients received a WHO-recommended rapid diagnostic test. Of an estimated 370,000 people who developed rifampicin-resistant TB, just 42% received treatment, although uptake of the WHO-recommended six-month regimen rose from 18% in 2024 to 42% in 2025. TB research funding stood at US$ 1.2 billion in 2023, less than a quarter of the US$ 5 billion annual target.

WHO is urging governments and partners to protect and increase sustainable financing, expand access to prevention, rapid diagnosis and effective treatment, and accelerate investment in new vaccines, diagnostics and treatments.

For procurement teams and health programs, the report points to resilient demand for quality-assured TB medicines and rapid diagnostics, particularly first-line treatments, rifampicin-resistant TB regimens and WHO-recommended test kits. As domestic budgets shoulder a growing share of TB spending, suppliers with reliable GMP manufacturing and competitive pricing are well positioned to support national programs sustaining treatment coverage.

Source: WHO, Amid challenges, countries increase domestic investment to protect progress against tuberculosis, https://www.who.int/news/item/12-11-2026-amid-challenges-countries-increase-domestic-investment-to-protect-progress-against-tuberculosis