Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s leading causes of death from a single infectious pathogen.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 1.3 million people died from TB in 2022. This was almost twice as many deaths as from HIV/AIDS. TB is also the primary cause of death among people living with HIV.
However, TB is preventable and curable.
FHI 360 is a global leader in TB research and programming. We support countries with a high TB burden to end TB by addressing challenges at national, regional and community levels across public and private sectors.
To advance the WHO End TB Strategy, which envisions a world free of TB, we work with local partners to create and deliver innovative TB programs.
30+
Countries in which we have projects focused on TB and/or TB/HIV
19 out of 30
Countries on the WHO’s high-burden TB list in which we’ve led TB projects since 2019
120+
Staff members working on TB projects
Our TB expertise
The TB epidemic has threatened human health since early human history. To protect and save lives, FHI 360 delivers TB technical assistance designed to align national efforts with international best evidence.
Simultaneously, we introduce game-changing innovations and new tools to help reduce TB incidence and mortality. We also strengthen service delivery for TB and comorbidities such as HIV and diabetes.
Maximizing detection
Our programs maximize efforts to find people of all ages with all forms of TB. We conduct active case finding in communities, including among vulnerable populations and in group settings, and intensified case finding in facilities. We also support the introduction and scale-up of digital screening tools and the strengthening of laboratory networks.
Ensuring treatment adherence and cures
We help people diagnosed with TB successfully complete treatment and be cured. We conduct comprehensive drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB treatment and care through person-centered approaches extending into community and primary health care levels. This includes active drug safety monitoring and management as well as treatment adherence and monitoring.
Preventing TB
Our programs work to stop the spread of new infections as well as progression to active TB disease. We oversee systematic contact investigation and management, TB preventive treatment, and infection prevention and control measures.
Developing new tools and approaches
We innovate and scale up new tools and approaches to diagnose, trace and treat TB. This includes new drugs and regimens, social and behavioral change methodologies, and guidelines, research and advocacy.
Building country-owned TB systems
We enhance and accelerate progress of country-owned TB systems in partnership with national governments and local partners. We organize private sector engagements, health systems strengthening and multisectoral collaborations to catalyze progress toward universal health care through TB services.
To end the tuberculosis epidemic, the private sector must expand drug-resistant TB treatment
Projects
Current projects
Our projects increase access to high-quality TB prevention, diagnostics, treatment and care services for all. We also strengthen service delivery for drug-resistant TB and for TB and comorbidities.
- Global Resilience Against Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis (GRAD-TB)
- USAID Tuberculosis Diagnostic Network Strengthening (TBDNS) activity
- TB Innovations and Health Systems Strengthening (TBIHSS)
- TB Private Sector
- Support to End Tuberculosis (SET)
- End TB Tajikistan
- Enhancing Quality of Health Care Activity (EQHA)
- USAID LEAD TB
Featured legacy projects
Since 2004, we have worked on global and national technical assistance projects to prevent, diagnose and treat TB, including leading and supporting efforts to integrate TB interventions within the overall health system.
Our work in high-burden TB countries
FHI 360 currently or has recently worked in 19 of the WHO’s 30 high-burden TB countries. Learn more about what we're doing for TB and other challenges in these countries (Lesotho not included):
Photo captions for images above, from top to bottom
"Our TB expertise"
A radiologist uses a portable chest X-ray machine to screen a woman for TB during a community screening event at the Binh Thuy District Health Centre in Can Tho Province, Viet Nam. The event was supported by the USAID Support to End TB project. Photo credit: Tran Dinh Khang for FHI 360
Challenge TB was USAID's flagship global mechanism for implementing its TB strategy and contributes to the TB/HIV activities under PEPFAR. As an implementing partner for Challenge TB, FHI 360 worked in Cambodia, Indonesia, Mozambique, Myanmar and Zambia in the international coalition led by the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation. Photo credit: Mbuto Machili for FHI 360
A taxi passenger holds up a flyer explaining what TB is and how to prevent it. The End TB Tajikistan Activity placed the flyer in taxis, trains and airplanes as part of a social and behavioral change campaign to raise awareness about the disease. Photo credit: Manzuma Salikhova/FHI 360
Clinical staff aim to diagnose a possible case of TB by reviewing an analysis, created by artificial intelligence, of an image taken by a portable X-ray machine. The X-ray was taken during a community TB screening event in An Giang Province, Viet Nam, through the USAID Support to End TB project. Photo credit: Thang Agency for FHI 360
Jerick Tan and Lovely Elcie Enriquez, part of the USAID Tuberculosis Innovations and Health Systems Strengthening project that is led by FHI 360, pose together in front of a backdrop that encourages TB screening in Manila, Philippines. Photo credit: Dante Diosina Jr. for FHI 360
Central image
Makhmatlatif Karimov (left) and Lola Sharipova check mycobacteria growth indicator tubes while conducting a rapid TB testing network assessment in Kulob, Tajikistan. Karimov is the diagnostics and laboratory advisor for the USAID End TB Tajikistan Activity. Sharipova is a laboratory technician for the Kulob Regional TB Center Laboratory. Photo credit: Masum Vohidov for FHI 360