Innovation, Access and Impact: Accelerating the Fight to End TB

By The Global Fund

March 18^th, 2026

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New technologies — from rapid molecular diagnostics and AI-enabled X-ray detection, to shorter, all-oral treatment regimens — are transforming what’s possible in the fight against, tuberculosis (TB), the world’s deadliest infectious disease claiming more than 1.2 million lives each year. Today, the challenge is no longer innovation alone.

With over 10 million people affected, ensuring these breakthroughs reach the people who need them most – quickly and affordably is key. The Global Fund is uniquely positioned to meet that challenge.

Providing 73% of all international financing for TB programs, the Global Fund works in partnership with governments, communities and the private sector to introduce new tools, reduce their cost and deliver them at scale – turning scientific progress into real-world impact.

Using Artificial Intelligence for Smarter TB Detection

Innovation, Access and Impact: Accelerating the Fight to End TB

Men wait under a tent at the Sénou camp. One man gestures while speaking to the group, who are seated on chairs in a semi-circle. The ground is dirt and sparse grass.

In the Sénou internally displaced persons camp in Mali, families face a heightened risk of TB. Overcrowding and disrupted health services create ideal conditions for the disease to spread. One person with active, untreated TB can spread the disease to more than 10 people a year.

To prevent this, radiologist Brice Tawe who works with Global Fund partner ARCAD Santé PLUS uses a portable digital X-ray unit to screen residents during regular TB campaigns within the camp.

Powered by AI-enabled computer-aided detection (CAD) software, each scan is analyzed in under five seconds. What once took up to two days to confirm can now be detected almost instantly — enabling immediate referral for further testing and, if required, treatment.

Mobile, AI-enabled X-ray units bring the latest TB screening technology directly to communities where laboratories are distant and specialists are scarce — accelerating detection, reducing time to treatment and limiting further spread.

Since 2021, the Global Fund has financed the procurement of more than 2,700 portable X-ray units in 46 countries, expanding TB screening in hard-to-reach and high-burden communities.

Through pooled procurement and market shaping, the Global Fund has broadened the range of TB imaging technologies available – from mobile and portable X-ray units to stationary systems and AI-assisted detection software – giving countries more tools to fight the disease.

Expanding Shorter, Safer, Lifesaving Treatment for Drug-Resistant TB

TB Cadre Gufron visits Pak Jun and his wife, sitting at a wooden table outside their home. Gufron, wearing a mask, counts money. Jun wears a skullcap and sarong.

Pak Jun, a TB patient, stands outside his home. He wears a white t-shirt, sarong, and black cap. Behind him is a white house with a red tile roof and lush green trees.

A pharmacy staff member prepares medicine for a patient at Puskesmas Pakusari health center. The staff member, wearing a mask and white shirt, holds blister packs of pills. A patient waits at the window.

In rural East Java, Indonesia, coffee farmer Pak Jun developed a persistent cough that left him too weak to work. He was diagnosed with drug-resistant TB (DR-TB). With access to a new, shorter, all-oral regimen, he completed his treatment in months rather than years, regaining his strength and returning to his farm and family.

Across Indonesia, the fight against DR-TB is being transformed by shorter, all-oral regimens such as BPaL/M, a combination of four medicines.

Where patients once endured up to 24 months of toxic, painful treatments with daily injections and severe side effects, with BPaL/M, they can now complete therapy in as little as six months, with higher success rates and far fewer complications. The result is a faster recovery for people with DR-TB and lower costs for health systems.

The Global Fund is helping to drive this shift in Indonesia and beyond.

In addition to the profound impact on individuals and families, shorter treatments are also slashing the cost of drug-resistant TB care.

Treatments such as BPaLM can reduce treatment costs by 57-78%, largely because patients need less time on treatment and fewer days in hospital. Evidence from a study across three countries shows these regimens can save over US$14,000 per patient while delivering better health outcomes.

Stopping TB Faster With Rapid Molecular Testing

Natalya Starostenkova, wearing a mask and gloves, prepares sputum specimens in blue-topped containers for TB diagnosis via GeneXpert testing.

Natalya Starostenkova, wearing gloves, prepares a sputum specimen for TB GeneXpert testing in a lab setting. Vials with blue and red caps sit on a white counter.

Nurse Natalya Starostenkova works on a mobile health clinic operated by Global Fund partner Alliance for Public Health. Her team delivers lifesaving TB care to communities on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.

Equipped with GeneXpert technology, she and her colleagues can diagnose TB – and detect drug resistance – in under two hours, ensuring patients can start treatment as quickly as possible to begin recovery and prevent the disease from spreading.

Since 2020, the Global Fund has provided more than 200 GeneXpert machines to partners for use in laboratories, health facilities and mobile clinics across Ukraine. In 2024, 98% of people diagnosed with TB in the country were tested using rapid molecular diagnostics, including GeneXpert machines.

Around the world, the Global Fund has helped expand access to these lifesaving diagnostic tools in 113 countries – reaching communities facing conflict, fragile health systems and some of the highest burdens of TB.

Making TB Care Work for Children, Everywhere

Abdul Qadr, an R.N. in a blue IOM vest, holds a glass of red liquid for a young boy to drink. Qadr wears a black face mask. The boy drinks from the glass with his eyes closed.

Four-year-old Adil’s world changed when his father and grandfather were diagnosed with TB. Soon after, the little boy, who lives in northern Iraq with his family, also tested positive. Fortunately, Adil had access to child-friendly, cherry-flavored TB medicine — a drinkable formulation designed specifically for young children.

For decades, children with TB were treated with adult medicines — crushed, imprecisely dosed and difficult to swallow. Diagnosis was often delayed, as children struggle to produce sputum for traditional tests and symptoms can be hard to detect.

As a result, thousands of children with TB were missed every year.

The Global Fund is the world’s leading international funder of child-friendly TB medicines, helping expand prevention and treatment in countries around the world, saving tens of thousands of young lives every year.

These investments are helping close gaps in detection and treatment, ensuring more children are diagnosed earlier, receive the right medicines, complete treatment successfully and are protected from TB.

Bringing TB Testing Closer to Communities: A New Era of Near Point-of-Care Tests

Gloved hands operate a Pluslife Thermomixer, a near point-of-care TB testing device. The digital display shows — State-of-the-art portable systems can deliver fast and accurate TB diagnosis closer to patients. TB REACH/Emily Pinna

In many high-burden countries, long distances to laboratories can delay TB diagnosis and treatment. To help close this gap, the Global Fund will roll out a new generation of near point-of-care TB tests in 13 countries this year – to help bring accurate, rapid diagnosis closer to patients.

These portable, battery-powered devices do not require complex laboratory infrastructure, highly specialized staff or even electricity. They deliver reliable results quickly — often during a single visit — allowing health workers to start treatment immediately and reduce further transmission.

Rapid molecular diagnostics such as GeneXpert and TrueNat have already transformed TB detection. These new tests build on that progress — expanding access beyond centralized laboratories to primary health centers, mobile clinics and remote communities. They will help replace centuries-old microscopy that is still used to diagnose many people with TB.

Together, these innovations are strengthening national diagnostic networks and ensuring that more people can be reached with fast, accurate TB testing.

By combining speed, accuracy and portability, near point-of-care testing offers a powerful new opportunity to detect TB earlier, treat it faster and accelerate progress toward ending the disease.