Global efforts to end TB by 2030 strengthened

Global efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB) have been fortified with the “Moscow Declaration to End TB” signed during an international conference in Russia last Friday, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

In a statement, the WHO said 75 ministers have agreed “to take urgent action to end TB by 2030” during the first WHO Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Tuberculosis in the Sustainable Development Era: A Multisectoral Response.

This resulted in the formulation of the aforementioned Declaration, a promise to increase multisectoral action as well as to track progress and build accountability.

“Today marks a critical landmark in the fight to end TB… It signals a long overdue global commitment to stop the death and suffering caused by this ancient killer,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted.

The statement shows that some 53 million lives have been saved since 2000 because of global campaigns against TB. Mortality rate has also gone down by 37 percent.

The WHO, however, added that “progress in many countries has stalled, global targets are off-track and persistent gaps remain in TB care and prevention.”

As a result, TB still kills more people than any other infectious disease. Major problems are associated with antimicrobial resistance, and it is the leading killer of people with HIV.

“One of the main problems has been a lack of political will and inadequate investment in fighting TB. The declaration must go hand-in-hand with increased investment,” Ghebreyesus stressed.

More than 1,000 participants, including ministers and country delegations as well as representatives of civil society and international organizations, scientists and researchers attended the conference.

The WHO data showed that in 2016, some 10.4 million people around the world fell ill with TB while some 1.7 million died from the disease.

Seven countries account for 64 percent of the total cases, with India leading the count, followed by Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa. –