The World Health Organization’s 2026 Global TB Report shows that the world is not moving fast enough to end tuberculosis (TB), which remains the world’s deadliest infectious disease. An estimated 10.6 million people developed TB and 1.13 million died in 2025. With the global incidence rate declining by just 1.6%, progress remains far too slow to meet international commitments to end TB.
The report highlights encouraging increases in domestic funding for TB, driven by greater investment from countries including India and Indonesia. These commitments demonstrate important national leadership in the fight against TB. At the same time, international funding remains essential – both to complement domestic resources and ensure people can access quality care, and to support the research and development of the innovations needed to ultimately end the disease. A 14% decline in international donor funding for TB services in 2025 threatens to slow progress at a time when greater investment is urgently needed.
The impact of investment in innovation is already evident. The share of people receiving shorter, six-month, all-oral treatment regimens for rifampicin-resistant TB more than doubled, from 18% in 2024 to 42% in 2025. This represents a major advance in expanding access to more effective, people-friendly treatments that can help more people recover while reducing the burden of care on individuals and health systems. The rapid expansion of shorter TB treatments demonstrates what sustained investment in research, development, and access can achieve – transforming scientific breakthroughs into better care for people affected by TB. It also reinforces the importance of investing not only in developing new treatments, but in ensuring they reach the people who need them. Yet with only 42% of people estimated to have developed rifampicin-resistant TB enrolled in treatment, much more remains to be done.
Building on this progress, TB Alliance and its partners are pursuing the next generation of transformative TB treatments through an ambitious 1×1×1 vision: treating latent TB infection in one day, active TB in one month, and ensuring new treatments reach those who need them within one year of regulatory approval. Achieving this vision could transform the fight against TB by saving millions of lives, dramatically reducing the burden on health systems and economies, and bringing an end to the disease within reach. The advances already being realized show what investment can achieve. Now is the time to build on that progress and invest in the breakthroughs that can make ending TB possible.