To support India’s efforts to end tuberculosis, US development agency USAID has announced grants aimed at scaling up innovative solutions for combating the disease in a country where an estimated 2.2 million such cases are reported annually. As part of the Tuberculosis Health Action Learning Initiative (THALI) project, $7.5 million has been awarded to the World Health Partners (WHP) for implementing activities in Kolkata while another $7.5 million has been awarded to Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT) for work in Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Pune.

Also, a $6 million award was signed with REACH (Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health) to help sustain momentum generated by the government’s Call to Action for a TB-free India campaign.

These awards will assist the government with testing and scaling innovative solutions to prevent, test and treat TB, especially among under-served urban slum dwellers and other low-income populations.

A recent WHO report says India has the highest number of tuberculosis cases in the world. As per the WHO Global TB Report, 2015, in 2014, 2.2 million cases were estimated in India, higher than any other country. In the last 18 years, USAID has worked with the Indian government to help diagnose and treat 15 million patients for TB.

USAID is also encouraging the private sector to increase its contribution to the TB-free campaign through social corporate responsibility.