Tuberculosis makes it onto the international political agenda for health...finally
On the eve before the First WHO Global Ministerial Conference on Ending TB in Moscow, Lancet Global Health published a Commentary on the Conference and the political spotlight on TB in the global political agenda.
“There has been a groundswell of political recognition of
tuberculosis which is the top infectious killer today. Two high
level events- the Ministerial Conference on Ending TB which is
being held on 16-17 November 2017 and the very first UN General
Assembly High Level Meeting on TB in 2018 are unprecedented in
the history of the TB response. We hope this will drive
acceleration and change in the global and national efforts to
end the TB epidemic.”
The Commentary
published in Lancet Global Health highlights the four clear
expectations from health ministers and all partners gathering at
the ministerial conference in Moscow. First, speed up universal
coverage of care and prevention for tuberculosis, HIV-associated
tuberculosis, and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the
context of the global agendas of antimicrobial resistance,
health security, and SDGs, while ensuring that equity, ethics,
and human rights are recognised as urgent concerns and are
protected and promoted. Second, enable sufficient and sustained
financing for the full response from strengthened domestic and
external sources. Third, urgently increase coordinated
investments in research and innovations. Finally, and most
importantly, to drive real action built on written commitments,
a multisectoral accountability framework needs to be prepared
and adhered to. This framework needs to encompass all dimensions
of the tuberculosis response and enable not just measuring
progress towards ending tuberculosis, but also timely reviewing
of results through government and civil society accountability
mechanisms at national and global levels, as well as taking
corrective actions.
Read the commentary online:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(17)30449-7/fulltext?elsca1=tlxpr
Source:
WHO TB NewsFlash
