What are the health needs and challenges?

Until the emergence of COVID-19, tuberculosis (TB) claimed more lives each year than any other infectious disease. The continued spread of this deadly, airborne and contagious respiratory infection, which disproportionately impacts the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations, is driven in part by the “missing millions” of people who are not formally diagnosed. This means that people living with this highly contagious disease cannot be treated, putting their health, and that of their families and communities, at risk.

This problem is particularly acute for businesses. Unlike many other diseases, TB tends to impact people during their most productive years – from 15 to 65 years of age. People sickened by TB often miss time, underperform or even drop out of work altogether, which in addition to creating a cycle of poverty and poor health that is exceptionally difficult to break, comes at an extraordinary economic price. A 2019 report shows that drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), in addition to causing sickness, suffering and death, is throttling the global economy and will cost approximately $17 trillion by 2050 if left unaddressed – a burden shared disproportionately by high TB-burden countries and the companies they host.

Collaboration activities and how they address needs and challenges

Johnson & Johnson—along with the World Economic Forum, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Stop TB Partnership, Royal Philips, Fullerton Health, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—launched the Ending Workplace TB Initiative at Davos in January 2020. Together, the companies that comprise Ending Workplace TB are identifying and connecting more people to TB care and treatment, while improving productivity and reducing costs related to health care, staff turnover and absenteeism.