NEWS ALERT - 25 March 2024 | Geneva
The Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative is excited to announce a GBP 4 million funding boost from the UK government. This new funding will support TB REACH Wave 11, as part of the UK’s Global Fund Accelerator Programme, to finance innovative approaches to provide integrated TB and lung health services to 500,000 people, detect TB in 37,000 people and save more than 15,000 lives in high burden TB countries.
In addition, this funding will also facilitate testing new approaches to strengthen health systems and combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
Some of the projects the UK is currently supporting through TB REACH include:
- Scaling up preventative treatment for TB in Brazil, Uganda, Vietnam, Zambia and Pakistan
- Integrating TB screening and services into maternal health services in Papua New Guinea and Afghanistan to tackle rising numbers of pregnant and post-partum women with the disease
- Using portable x-ray machines and AI to diagnose TB in prisons in Mozambique
TB REACH is the only global mechanism in the TB community that provides rapid, direct funding to in-country partners to deliver innovative care to people with TB. TB REACH has been funded by Global Affairs Canada since its inception in 2010, and has also received generous funding from USAID, the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Since inception, TB REACH projects have supported the diagnosis and treatment of more than 3 million people with TB in 56 countries globally and helped shape many global and national TB guidelines through evidence generation. Stop TB and Global Fund also work together to take learnings from TB REACH projects to help inform country decisions about larger investments to scale up successful approaches.
“TB REACH is the only global mechanism in the TB community that provides fast-track funding directly to implementing partners in country to test innovations. We have supported everything from donkeys to drones, artificial intelligence, portable X-ray and artificial intelligence, new molecular diagnostics, to the vital touch of human TB champions and we look forward to all the new ideas that will be made possible from FCDO’s generous Wave 11 contributions”, said Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director, Stop TB Partnership.
While more people with TB were started on treatment in 2022 than ever before, globally we still miss more than 3 million who fall ill every year. TB multimorbidity is a growing concern with many people with TB having other comorbid conditions such as HIV, diabetes, malnourishment, and substance abuse – and many people who do not have TB suffer from other lung conditions.
The UK has long been at the forefront of the battle against TB and the £1 billion commitment to the Global Fund made in 2022 is making an important contribution to fighting the disease, including by providing treatment and care for 1.1 million people, screening 20 million people and providing 41,800 people with treatment for multidrug-resistant TB.