For years, Bangladesh was winning its war against tuberculosis. Families celebrated recoveries, children returned to school, and parents went back to work, all thanks to a healthcare system strengthened by global partnerships. But now, that progress is unraveling. In early 2025, with a single stroke of a pen, $48 million in U.S. aid vanished money that once kept clinics open, tests running, and medicines stocked. The consequences? Not just numbers on a report, but real people, mothers, laborers, students left in limbo, their survival hanging by a thread.
The $48 Million Loss: Not Just a Budget Cut, a Lifeline Cut!
The funding wasn’t just a line item, it was the difference between life and death for thousands.
Screening that Saved Lives: Over four years, USAID-backed programs tested 52 million people, catching TB early in 148,000 cases, including 18,000 children. Now, those screenings are slowing and so is hope.
A Safety Net for the Sickest: Places like Shyamoli TB Hospital specialized in treating drug-resistant TB, a brutal form of the disease requiring years of care. Now, staff are being let go, and patients wonder: Who will help me finish my treatment?
The Human Collateral: Over 1,000 healthcare workers, doctors, lab technicians, outreach teams have lost their jobs. Many were TB specialists. Their expertise? Now slipping away.
Mohammad’s Story: “I Was Saved But What About Now?”
Mohammad Parvez, a 35-year-old construction worker, was diagnosed with drug-resistant TB last year. The treatment is grueling. Daily injections, side effects that leave him weak, and a year-long fight to survive.
“The doctors told me I would make it,” he says, sitting outside a Dhaka clinic. “But now they say the program is ending. What happens to people like me?”
Nearby, 17-year-old Kajol, once a bright student, fights her own battle. She was halfway through treatment when funding dried up. “I don’t want to die,” she whispers. “But if I stop my medicines.” Her fear is real. Incomplete treatment doesn’t just fail patients, it breeds eadlier, untreatable strains of TB, threatening entire communities.
Doctors Sound the Alarm: “We’re Losing What We Built”
Dr. Ayesha Akhter, a TB specialist in Dhaka, remembers when Bangladesh was a success story. Now? “One morning, the support was just gone. We’re backsliding.”
Tariful Islam Khan, a researcher, warns “If mass screenings stop, TB will spread silently. By the time we catch up, it’ll be too late.”
Farhana Nishat Seheli from BRAC puts it bluntly: “Short-term, we cope. Long-term? People will die.”
The World Health Organization agrees. Without urgent action, decades of progress could vanish.
The Math of a Crisis: What Happens When Help Disappears?
313,000 TB cases were reported last year in Bangladesh. With treatment coverage dropping, thousands go untreated and infectious. Global models predict 28-32% more TB cases in high-burden countries if funding doesn’t return. Since January 2025, the cuts may have already caused 10,566 extra deaths with projections of 2.2 million more by 2030 if nothing changes.
A Crossroads for Humanity
This isn’t just about budgets. It’s about Mohammad, who just wants to work again. It’s about Kajol, who dreams of finishing school. It’s about doctors watching their patients relapse knowing it could have been prevented.
Bangladesh’s fight against TB was proof that global health partnerships work. Now, it’s becoming proof of what happens when they fail.
The world has a choice. Step in now, or watch a generation pay the price. Because TB doesn’t wait. And neither should we.
Shreya Gupta is a trainee journalist at Cult Current. The views expressed in the article are
her ownand do not necessarily reflect the official stance of Cult Current