UN agrees to step up global plan to battle TB ahead of summit

UN member-states agreed on a global plan on Friday to step up the fight against tuberculosis, the world’s number one killer among infectious diseases, settling a row with the US over access to cheap drugs.

Following weeks of tough negotiations, the text of a final declaration won approval and will be formally adopted at the first-ever TB summit on September 26, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

In July, SA clashed with the US over proposals to water down language recognising the right of poorer countries to access cheaper medicines.

The contested language referred to the TRIPS trade arrangements dealing with intellectual property rights. A compromise was reached that strengthened references to TRIPS.

Medical charity MSF urged countries to resist what it described as an aggressive push by the US pharmaceutical lobby to restrict access to low-cost drugs.

At the summit, world leaders will commit to end the TB epidemic by 2030 and come up with $13bn (R194bn) annually to achieve that goal.

An additional $2bn (R29.8bn) will be spent globally to fund TB research – up from $700m (about R1bn) currently.

MSF policy advisor Sharonann Lynch said the final declaration was an improvement from the first draft.

“Heads of state have to exercise their rights to protect public health over drug company profits and scale up effective and affordable, generic versions of expensive patented drug-resistant TB medicines.”

In 2017, the World Health Organisation (WHO) sounded the alarm when it said TB had surpassed HIV/AIDS as the world’s number one infectious killer and was the ninth cause of death worldwide.

About 1.7 million people died from TB in 2016 out of 10.4 million worldwide who became ill from the severe lung infection, according to the WHO.