The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
In 2021, Uganda reported an estimated 98,000 new TB cases, translating to an incidence rate of 227 cases per 100,000 population.
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Uganda has today joined the rest of the world in marking World Tuberculosis (TB) and Leprosy Day. The national event was hosted at Nakasongola Roman Catholic Primary School in Nakasongola town, where Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja presided over the occasion.
The theme for this year’s World TB Day is “Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver,” a rallying cry urging for urgency, accountability, and hope in the fight against TB. Uganda is among the 30 countries with the highest TB burden globally. In 2021, the country reported an estimated 98,000 new TB cases, translating to an incidence rate of 227 cases per 100,000 population.
With continued support from the Global Fund and other partners, Uganda has made significant strides in TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, aiming to reduce the disease burden. However, global health funding cuts are now threatening to reverse these gains.
On the occasion of World TB Day, the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for urgent investments to protect and maintain TB care and support services for those in need, amidst significant budget cuts to global health agencies.
WHO reports that global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 79 million lives since 2000. However, early reports indicate that severe disruptions in TB services are being observed across several of the highest-burden countries due to funding cuts.
“The huge gains the world has made against TB over the past 20 years are now at risk as cuts to funding start to disrupt access to services for prevention, screening, and treatment for people with TB,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Countries in the WHO African Region are experiencing the greatest impact, followed by those in the WHO Southeast Asian and Western Pacific regions. The funding cuts have resulted in human resource shortages, undermining service delivery, and severely disrupted diagnostic services, delaying detection and treatment.
The cuts have also led to the collapse of data and surveillance systems, compromising disease tracking, management, and community engagement efforts. The WHO statement further highlights that the 2025 funding cuts exacerbate an already existing underfunding for the global TB response.
In 2023, only 26% of the US$ 22 billion needed annually for TB prevention and care was available, leaving a massive shortfall. TB research is also in crisis, receiving only one-fifth of the US$ 5 billion annual target in 2022, severely delaying advancements in diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines.
“But we cannot give up on the concrete commitments that world leaders made at the UN General Assembly just 18 months ago to accelerate work to end TB. WHO is committed to working with all donors, partners, and affected countries to mitigate the impact of funding cuts and find innovative solutions,” Dr. Tedros added.
In response to the challenges threatening TB services worldwide, WHO’s Director-General and the Civil Society Task Force on Tuberculosis have issued a joint statement calling for immediate, coordinated efforts from governments, global health leaders, donors, and policymakers to prevent further disruptions to TB services.
The statement outlines critical priorities, including securing sustainable domestic funding, safeguarding essential TB services, revitalizing national collaboration platforms, and enhancing monitoring and early warning systems to assess and detect disruptions in real time.
As part of the solutions to combating resource constraints, WHO is driving the integration of TB and lung health within primary healthcare as a sustainable solution to budget cuts. On World TB Day, WHO calls on individuals, communities, societies, donors, and governments to play their part in ending TB. In January 2025, President Donald Trump ordered the US exit from WHO and stopped funding to the agency.
Since then, WHO activities have been severely crippled. Trump also dismantled USAID and cut off funding, exacerbating the global health crisis in several countries. TB remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease, responsible for over 1 million deaths annually, bringing devastating impacts on families and communities.
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