India was analysed to depend on 15 per cent of USAID funding for its national TB programmes, according to the study.
The authors wrote, “The loss of US funding endangers global TB control efforts, jeopardising progress towards End TB and SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) targets, and potentially puts millions of lives at risk.”
Short-term disruptions will severely impact vulnerable populations, with an alternative funding urgently needed to sustain critical TB prevention and treatment efforts, they said.
In the best case scenario — where TB programmes recover funding in three months — the study estimated additional 6.3 lakh cases and around one lakh deaths could occur due to the bacterial infection over the following five years.
Publicly available expenditure data reported by countries every year to the World Health Organisation (WHO) to calculate a nation’s dependency on US government’s funding for TB programmes.
In 2015, the UN adopted the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’, which outlines goals and steps “urgently needed to shift the world onto a sustainable and resilient path”.
Goals include ending poverty and tackling climate change, among others.
