Tuberculosis - $10 to save a life

Over lunch a few weeks ago, I was told about a disease that billions of people on our planet have. A disease that takes 1.6 million lives a year. A disease that can be treated for $10.  

Being the impatient person I am, I started guessing what they were talking about. Pneumonia -  no, not that many people have it. Malaria – no, too many deaths. HIV – no, too cheap to treat. 

Turns out they were talking about Tuberculosis. 

Which didn’t really make much sense to me. First of all, no one ever talks about it, so I assumed it can’t possibly be such a big issue. And secondly, it seems like such a simple thing to treat – like a cold or the flu. How do people die from it? 

Then, I remembered conversations I’d had with doctors and nurses in rural Cambodia, Ghana and South Africa. Without exception, they said that it’s always the hidden diseases that cause most damage. TB lurks in the background, and kills people when they get sick with something else. 

I started doing some research, and found that TB gets 60% of its money from the Global Fund.  

This is the organisation that pools money from governments, charities and foundations to fight the world’s most pressing diseases. It’s the organisation that has disbursed funds to allow the amazing progress we’ve seen in fighting HIV/AIDS – by getting almost 4 million people on life-saving drugs, and which has enabled malaria rates to be halved in countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia by supporting the distribution of bed-nets and provision of local services. 

When it comes to Tuberculosis, the Global Fund enabled 6 million people to get treatment. 

Well, the Global Fund is passing the cap around for more money later this year to pay for the next three years of work. This presents an opportunity for each of us. Our governments are making up their minds in the coming months about how much money to put into the Global Fund – and part of their decision comes down to how much public support there is. You can add your voice to this chorus by getting involved with RESULTS in the UK or Australia, who are running a campaign in the coming months to make sure that we can save even more lives by supporting the Global Fund appropriately.  

You can access RESULTS resources directly here – an action sheet (UK or AU), background briefs one and two, and the UK Coalition to Stop TB’s Election Ask. 

One RESULTS volunteer we met doing just that is Emily, who we had the chance to chat to about why she cares about TB, what she does about it, and what effect her actions have had.

To find out more about health and extreme poverty, click here.