According to the World Health Organisation, more than 10 million people continue to fall ill with TB every year around the world. In Afghanistan, since 2016 MSF has been treating patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) in Kandahar. MSF runs a hospital with a laboratory, an outpatient clinic, and a 22-bed inpatient department for patients diagnosed with DR-TB, and patients who develop adverse side effects from DR-TB medications.

The hospital receives patients with DR-TB from Kandahar and other provinces, including Helmand, Nirmoz, Uruzgan and Zabul, while others travel from very remote areas in Daikundi, Badghis, Ghazni and Paktika provinces. MSF also supports the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in the diagnosis of treatment of drug-sensitive tuberculosis patients in other facilities in southern Afghanistan, including Mirwais Regional Hospital, Sarpoza Prison and Zabul Provincial Tuberculosis Centre.

In 2024, MSF teams provided consultations for 44,940 patients, with 2,696 individuals being diagnosed with drug-sensitive TB. The MSF hospital registered 87 cases of DR-TB, enrolling 85 patients for DR-TB treatment. Since 2016, the total number of patients who have completed their DR-TB treatment courses is 383.