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Who we are

TB Alert is the UK's national tuberculosis charity. We're unique because we tackle TB both in the UK and internationally – working in countries like India, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi.

This global reach gives us a vital perspective, allowing us to address common challenges of TB in both low-incidence countries, like the UK, and high-incidence regions across Africa and Asia.

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Our work is focused on three key areas:

TB awareness and support

Increasing public and professional understanding of TB, breaking down barriers to treatment, and offering crucial support to patients throughout their TB journey.

TB partnerships

Bringing together health services, voluntary organisations, and people affected by TB to collaboratively plan and deliver better TB care.

Advocacy

Advocating for the policies and resources needed to improve patient care, as well as the prevention and control of TB worldwide.

Our vision is the control and ultimate elimination of TB.

Our mission is to increase access to effective treatment for all.

Our history

TB Alert was founded in late 1998 and officially launched at the Houses of Parliament on World TB Day (24 March) 1999.

The charity was established by individuals who believed that, given Britain’s long history with TB, there needed to be a stronger response to the resurgent global threat of the disease, which the World Health Organization had declared a global emergency in 1993.

We were the first TB-specific charity set up in Britain since the 1960s, when earlier TB organizations, having prematurely assumed the disease was conquered, shifted their focus. Our active trustees include many of the UK’s leading TB experts.

Before I had TB, what did I know about TB? I didn’t know much. I was somewhat aware that in the past a lot of people died from it.

David

TB Warriors:

How TB survivors help combat the spread of tuberculosis in impoverished communities.

Delhi’s overcrowded Mukundpur slum is a home to ragpickers, daily labourers, and street vendors – a poor community at high risk of TB.

To address this, TB Alert India’s Divine Project trains TB survivors from the local community to act as TB Warriors within it.

Tackling TB globally

In 2000, TB Alert funded our first projects in India. This led to the launch of our sister organisation, TB Alert India, four years later.

Over the decades, we’ve run many successful programmes in Bangladesh, India, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe – as well as the UK – with funding from major donor bodies.

These include:
UK Department for International Development (DfID)
UK Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC)
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the World Bank
Big Lottery Fund
Elton John AIDS Foundation
Comic Relief
India's National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP)

Tackling TB in the UK

TB Alert has been instrumental in strengthening TB efforts within the UK. In 2008, we helped launch TB Action, a community of people affected by TB that provides a crucial voice for people and communities affected by TB across the country.

In the same year, we developed The Truth About TB awareness campaign as a lead partner for the Department of Health and Social Care, significantly raising awareness of TB in England and building the capacity of voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations working with high-risk communities. Both remain at the heart of our work in the UK nearly two decades on.

Our People

Our trustees

Paul Sommerfeld

Executive Trustee

Martin Dedicoat

Chair

Sabahat Ahmed

Nichola Ashby

Lesley Brogelli

Simran Chawla

Peter Davies

Jagjit Dosanjh-Elton

Vikas Panibatla

Prabhakar Varma

Past patrons

Having recovered from tuberculosis (TB) at the age of 14, Archbishop Desmond Tutu understood the physical and emotional toll of the illness. It also opened his eyes to the impact it has on vulnerable and marginalised communities. This profound personal connection to TB, coupled with his wider passion for human rights and social justice, led him to become the Patron of TB Alert in 2003.

His name and global reputation brought significant international attention to TB Alert’s crucial mission to combat tuberculosis in the UK and worldwide. His patronage also lent immense credibility to TB Alert’s work, strengthening advocacy and fundraising efforts. Archbishop Tutu was a globally recognised advocate for public health issues, particularly TB and HIV, and championed many organisations dedicated to this cause. Such was his unwavering commitment to eradicating TB that he continued his patronage of TB Alert, alongside the Desmond Tutu TB Centre in South Africa, even after retiring from much of his charitable work in 2011.

Since his passing in December 2021, TB Alert has felt a profound void where his invaluable support and tireless dedication to the fight against TB once was. Now, as we embark on a new chapter, we are in a position to seek another global leader to champion our cause.

Before his passing in 2009, our Honorary President Sir John Crofton received the prestigious Union Medal for his outstanding, lifelong contributions to TB control — the highest honour from the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases (IUATLD).

As Professor of Respiratory Diseases and Tuberculosis at Edinburgh University in the 1950s – a place and time in which TB was the leading cause of death in young people – Sir John led the team responsible for bringing TB under control. His ‘Edinburgh Method’ was the first demonstration of mass control of TB, which was subsequently instituted in 23 European countries.

Sir John was a knighted in 1977 in recognition of his contributions to medical science. He was also a leader  in the work of the World Health Organization, a celebrated author, and an influential teacher. To the end of his life in 2009, at the age of 97, Sir John continued as a tireless campaigner on TB issues and fundraiser for TB Alert.

Before his passing in 2009, our Honorary President Sir John Crofton received the prestigious Union Medal for his outstanding, lifelong contributions to TB control — the highest honour from the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases (IUATLD).

As Professor of Respiratory Diseases and Tuberculosis at Edinburgh University in the 1950s – a place and time in which TB was the leading cause of death in young people – Sir John led the team responsible for bringing TB under control. His ‘Edinburgh Method’ was the first demonstration of mass control of TB, which was subsequently instituted in 23 European countries.

Sir John was a knighted in 1977 in recognition of his contributions to medical science. He was also a leader  in the work of the World Health Organization, a celebrated author, and an influential teacher. To the end of his life in 2009, at the age of 97, Sir John continued as a tireless campaigner on TB issues and fundraiser for TB Alert.

Annual accounts and reports