Despite being preventable and curable, tuberculosis (TB), alongside COVID-19, is one of the leading infectious disease killers in low- and middle-income countries. Each year, an estimated 10 million people fall ill with TB, and 1.4 million die. As a second-order impact of COVID-19, the World Health Organization estimates that an additional half a million people may have died from TB in 2020 alone -- bringing 2020 TB deaths to an estimated 1.9 million.
In September 2018, the United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB called for high-level attention and action on TB. This meeting established the ambitious target of diagnosing and enrolling an additional 40 million people on TB treatment and enrolling 30 million people on TB-preventive therapy (TPT) by 2022, with a focus on countries with the highest burden of the disease.
As the U.S. Government’s lead Agency on global TB efforts, USAID works with agencies and partners around the world on the shared goal of reaching every person with TB, curing those in need of treatment, preventing the spread of new infections, and stopping the progression to active disease. At the 2018 UNHLM, USAID launched the Global Accelerator to End TB (the Accelerator) to increase commitment from, and build the capacity of, governments, civil society, and the private sector to accelerate countries’ progress in reaching the global targets. The Accelerator focuses on countries with high burdens of TB where the Agency can align with local communities and partners to deliver results. To ensure the Accelerator’s effectiveness and increased transparency, USAID uses standardized data-collection and performance-based indicators that align with the targets.
