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Global leaders to meet to fast-track End TB efforts
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Fight against TB: Tuberculosis remains a major public health concern in Southeast Asia. Country leaders will review ongoing efforts and accelerate action to achieve the 2030 End TB goal at the End TB Summit in New Delhi, starting on March 13. (Kompas.com/File)
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ountry leaders are set to meet in New Delhi for an End Tuberculosis (TB) Summit, which will begin on March 13, to review ongoing efforts and accelerate action to reach the 2030 End TB goal.
Hosted by India’s Health and Family Welfare Ministry, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Stop TB Partnership, the 2018 End TB Summit will be inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and addressed by WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, India’s Health and Family Welfare Minister JP Nadda and Stop TB Partnership chair Aaron Motsoaledi.
WHO South-East Asia regional director Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Stop TB Partnership executive director Lucica Ditiu and Global Fund executive director Peter Sands will be among the prominent health leaders to attend the meeting. Health Minister Nila F.Moeloek is among health ministers set to participate.
TB was responsible for 1.7 million deaths in 2016, although most cases were curable. Over 10 million people contract TB every year. According to WHO, the South-East Asia region, home to one-fourth of the global population, also contains a disproportionately high 46 percent of TB disease cases recorded worldwide.
The Delhi End TB Summit builds on the Delhi Call to Action adopted by member countries of WHO SEARO in March 2017 and the WHO Global Ministerial Conference “Ending TB in the Sustainable Development Era: A Multisectoral Response”, held in Moscow in November last year.
The summit next week will set the stage for the September 2018 UN High-Level Meeting on TB. For the first time TB will be discussed in the UN General Assembly at the head of state level.
