The recently published Global tuberculosis report 2024 presents an update on progress and challenges in the global fight against TB in 2023. Tuberculosis struck 10.8 million people in 2023 and killed around 1.25 million (including 161 000 among people with HIV), making it the top leading cause of death from an infectious agent. This is despite TB being a preventable and treatable disease, with rapid diagnostics, newer and safer drugs, shorter regimens, and updated guidelines and policies based on the latest evidence. While there has been significant progress against TB, it has been too slow, due largely to chronic underfunding of the TB response globally.
In view of these new findings, the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and the WHO Civil Society Task Force on TB have issued a joint statement emphasizing the need to translate the commitments made by United Nations Member States at the second UN General Assembly High-level Meeting on the Fight Against Tuberculosis (UNHLM-TB ) in September 2023. In that historic event, Member States adopted a political declaration in which they committed to achieving ambitious targets by 2027:
- diagnose and treat 90% of people with TB
- provide TB preventive treatment to 90% of those eligible
- test 100% of people with TB with rapid diagnostic tests
- license at least one new TB vaccine within 5 years
- mobilize at least US$ 22 billion a year by 2027, and US$ 5 billion for TB research.
The joint statement expressed deep concern that the current funding allocation for TB from both domestic and international sources is grossly insufficient. According to the Global tuberculosis report 2024, annual funding available for TB in 2023 was only US$ 5.7 billion. Achieving the targets in the political declaration will require an almost four-fold increase to US$ 22 billion per year by 2027. Without adequate investment, the targets that world leaders have set will remain a wish list. The progress towards 2023 UNHLM-TB targets is below.
The joint statement urges all stakeholders to:
- significantly increase domestic and international funding for ending TB, including for meaningful engagement of civil society and TB-affected communities;
- empower civil society and affected communities to be part of the planning, decision making, implementation and monitoring of national strategic plans to end TB;
- ensure robust social support and protection measures to avoid catastrophic costs for persons with TB and their families; and
- ensure equitable and uninterrupted access to affordable, high-quality TB prevention and care including novel tools, drugs and vaccines.
The statement highlighted that the TB response must be rights-based, equitable, multisectoral and innovative. It reiterated the commitment – 'Yes, we can end TB. Let's do it together'.
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