NGOs release joint statement calling for governments to increase payments to Global Fund to fill gap in TB funding

Ahead of World Tuberculosis (TB) Day on March 24, three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) released a joint statement warning that "[a] $1.7 billion funding shortfall to fight [TB] over the next five years means 3.4 million patients will go untreated and gains made against the disease will be reversed," Reuters reports. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance, the Stop AIDS Campaign and Results UK said in the statement that the cancellation of Round 11 grants from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria was endangering the expansion of treatment and prevention programs, the news agency notes. The statement "called on governments to scale up funding of TB, HIV and malaria programs at a G20 meeting in Mexico in June in an effort to replenish the Global Fund with $2 billion," according to Reuters (Mollins, 3/23).