KarunaNews Story

A growing body of research suggests programs that give money to very poor people could have far-reaching implications for global efforts to end the TB epidemic. Twenty years ago, Brazil started to give poor people a regular cash handout with few strings attached. Today, Bolsa Familia (Portuguese for Family Allowance), helps 21 million families or about a quarter of the population. The drop in TB cases and deaths surprised even the study authors. "We were expecting an effect but not so big," says Davide Rasella, head of the health impact assessment and evaluation group at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health. "We have a study showing an enormous effect on reduction of hospitalization, or millions of hospitalizations that have been avoided in the last two decades because of the [Bolsa Familia] program."