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The link between poverty and tuberculosis (TB) is well established. TB infection is transmitted more readily in conditions such as overcrowding, inadequate ventilation and malnutrition, which are associated with poverty. TB also diminishes the livelihoods of affected individuals, by preventing gainful employment, creating costs associated with treatment-seeking or coping with illness, and by having an adverse impact on social relationships.

Analyses suggest that the poor have greater difficulty overcoming barriers in accessing care and completing treatment. They have fewer resources to use, both for direct costs (such as consultation fees and transport to health facilities) and indirect costs such as child care. Poverty may also contribute significantly to lower treatment success rates in high and lower TB burden countries alike.