Tuberculosis could end if there’s more US public health funding, experts say

Tuberculosis is now known as a disease of poverty that tends to hit hardest among people living with HIV or malnutrition and those with unstable or crowded housing. Photograph: Andrew Aitchison/Corbis/Getty Images

As tuberculosis outbreaks pick up speed in the US and abroad amid deep cuts in funding for local, state and international public health programs, a resurgence of the deadliest infectious disease – including drug-resistant tuberculosis – could be on the horizon.

Increasing funding for public health responses could end tuberculosis (TB) altogether, says James Brookes, an IT specialist from Idaho, who told this to his representatives in Congress on Wednesday.