CHDS faculty Nicolas Menzies and colleagues projected how funding cuts from US bilateral health aid and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria could lead to increases in pediatric tuberculosis cases and deaths in a recent publication in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.
The researchers applied calibrated transmission-dynamic models for tuberculosis and HIV programs across multiple funding-level scenarios to assess the potential impact of discontinuing funding in 130 countries. Using funding data covering the period 2025-2035, they examined how funding changes would affect tuberculosis exposure and access to treatment among children aged 0-14 years.
The researchers found that a withdrawal of funding could result in an additional 2-5 million pediatric cases of tuberculosis and 340,000 preventable deaths over the next decade in low and middle-income countries, particularly for the Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia regions.
Learn more: Read the publication, Potential Paediatric Tuberculosis Incidence and Deaths Resulting from Interruption in Programmes Supported by International Health Aid, 2025–34: A Mathematical Modelling Study
Learn more: Read the Harvard Chan School press release, U.S. Funding Cuts Could Result in Nearly 9 Million Child Tuberculosis Cases, 1.5 Million Child Deaths
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