With tuberculosis (TB) remaining the world’s deadliest infectious disease, responsible for over 1mn deaths annually bringing devastating impacts on families and communities, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) calls for urgent action could not have come at a more appropriate time. On the occasion on World TB Day, marked today (March 24), the WHO has called for an urgent investment of resources to protect and maintain TB care and support services for people in need across regions and countries.Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 79mn lives since 2000. However, the drastic and abrupt cuts in global health funding happening now are threatening to reverse these gains. Rising drug resistance especially across Europe and the ongoing conflicts across the Middle-East, Africa and Eastern Europe, are further exacerbating the situation for the most vulnerable.Under the theme Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver, World Tuberculosis Day 2025 campaign highlights a rallying cry for urgency, and accountability and hope. “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. “Early reports to WHO reveal that severe disruptions in the TB response are seen across several of the highest-burden countries following the funding cuts. Countries in the WHO African Region are experiencing the greatest impact, followed by countries in the WHO South-East Asian and Western Pacific Regions. In all, 27 countries are facing crippling breakdowns in their TB response, with devastating consequences, such as: Human resource shortages undermining service delivery; diagnostic services severely disrupted, delaying detection and treatment; data and surveillance systems collapsing, compromising disease tracking and management; community engagement efforts, including active case finding, screening, and contact tracing, deteriorating, leading to delayed diagnoses and increased transmission risks.Nine countries report failing TB drug procurement and supply chains, jeopardising treatment continuity and patient outcomes. The 2025 funding cuts further exacerbate an already existing underfunding for global TB response. In 2023, only 26% of the $22bn annually needed for TB prevention and care was available, leaving a massive shortfall. TB research is in crisis, receiving just one-fifth of the $5bn annual target in 2022—severely delaying advancements in diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines. WHO is leading efforts to accelerate TB vaccine development through the TB Vaccine Accelerator Council, but progress remains at risk without urgent financial commitments.In response to the urgent challenges threatening TB services worldwide, WHO’s Director-General and Civil Society Task Force on Tuberculosis issued a joint statement last week, demanding immediate, co-ordinated efforts from governments, global health leaders, donors, and policymakers to prevent further disruptions. The statement outlines five critical priorities: Addressing TB service disruptions urgently, ensuring responses match the crisis’s scale; securing sustainable domestic funding, guaranteeing uninterrupted and equitable access to TB prevention and care; safeguarding essential TB services, including access to life-saving drugs, diagnostics, treatment and social protections, alongside cross-sector collaboration; establishing or revitalising national collaboration platforms, fostering alliances among civil society, NGOs, donors, and professional societies to tackle challenges; enhancing monitoring and early warning systems to assess real-time impact and detect disruptions early.“This urgent call is timely and underscores the necessity of swift, decisive action to sustain global TB progress and prevent setbacks that could cost lives,” said Dr Tereza Kasaeva, Director of WHO’s Global Programme on TB and Lung Health. “Investing in ending TB is not only a moral imperative but also an economic necessity — every dollar spent on prevention and treatment yields an estimated $43 in economic returns.”