Results UK, together with Results International Australia, Results Canada and RESULTS U.S., has launched a new advocacy report, ‘Fuelling the fight against the spread of tuberculosis: Nutrition is the missing ingredient’.
Despite being preventable and curable, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, affecting more than 10 million people and claiming over one million lives every year. Undernutrition is the leading risk factor for TB, contributing to nearly one million new cases annually, while more than two billion people continue to face moderate or severe food insecurity.
The report makes the case for integrating nutrition and social protection into TB prevention and treatment programmes. Growing evidence shows these approaches are highly effective, cost-efficient, and can improve treatment outcomes while helping to break the cycle of disease, malnutrition and poverty. Modelling suggests that eliminating poverty and expanding social protection could reduce global TB incidence by as much as 84%.
Ending TB requires more than a biomedical response. Governments and donors must prioritise integrated TB and nutrition interventions, backed by sustained financing, political commitment and cross-sector collaboration, to accelerate progress towards ending the disease.