Honourable Secretary Ethel Maciel, thank you for your leadership as the chair of our Technical Advisory Group at WHO,
Honourable Minister Mansukh Mandaviya,
Honourable Minister Budi Sadikin,
Honourable Minister Muhammad Pate,
Honourable Secretary of Health Teodoro Herbosa,
Honourable Under-Secretary Alexander Ghisleni,
Also my sister Cica,
Distinguished members of the Stop TB Partnership Board,
Dear colleagues and friends,
Bom dia a todos,
I am honoured to join you today.
I thank the Stop TB Partnership for its resolute partnership in the fight against TB over so many years.
And I thank Brazil for its leadership in hosting this meeting, and its commitment to ending TB at home and around the world.
I met His Excellency the President yesterday and I was really impressed by his commitment. He remembered that last year he installed an inter-ministerial committee for the elimination of TB and other socially determined diseases that actually gave birth to tomorrow’s launching of the multi-disease elimination programme.
TB has plagued humanity for millennia.
And yet in 2015, the nations of the world made a bold commitment – to end TB by 2030.
Of course, we have made significant progress towards that goal.
In the past 12 years, the proportion of people with TB who are being diagnosed and treated has increased from 50% to 70%.
But of course, that leaves 30% who we are still not reaching – more than 3 million people – and they are some of the poorest, most marginalized and hardest-to-reach populations.
Closing that gap is an urgent priority for all of us.
In September last year, world leaders came together at the second UN High-Level Meeting on the fight against TB to make strong commitments with concrete targets.
They committed to reaching 90% of people in need with TB prevention and care services;
To using a WHO-recommended rapid test as the first method of diagnosing TB;
To ensuring that all people with TB have access to a health and social benefit package;
To ensuring the availability of at least one new TB vaccine that is safe and effective;
And to closing funding gaps for TB implementation and research by 2027. Both are only about fifty percent funded now.
Now countries must turn those commitments into action.
WHO is committed to supporting countries to do that, working with partners and affected communities.
And we have powerful new tools with which to do it:
Rapid molecular tests, which reduce testing times from three days to less than two hours;
And new all-oral treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB that reduce treatment times from eighteen months to six months.
These are game changers for diagnosis and treatment, and both are now becoming widely available in more than 100 countries.
But there is one important tool we still need, and that’s a new vaccine.
The only licensed TB vaccine, BCG, was developed more than a century ago.
It saves thousands of lives every year by protecting young children, but does not adequately protect adolescents and adults, who account for most TB transmission.
That’s why last year, WHO established a TB Vaccine Accelerator Council, to facilitate the development, licensing and equitable use of new TB vaccines.
I thank Minister Nísia Trindade of Brazil and Minister Budi of Indonesia for your leadership as co-chairs of the Council.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that with political and financial commitment, new and powerful vaccines can be developed quickly and distributed widely.
TB is a different scientific challenge, but where there is a will, there is a way.
At the same time, we need to address the drivers of TB, including poverty, malnutrition, diabetes, HIV, tobacco and alcohol use, poor living and working conditions, and discrimination.
That’s why we created the WHO Civil Society Task Force on TB, and I thank partners like the Stop TB Partnership and the many other members of the task force who are represented here today for your dedication in the fight against TB. Your contributions are critical.
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Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Let me leave you with three areas in which we need the support of the Stop TB Partnership as we move forward on the road towards ending TB.
First, we need your support for governments to follow through on the commitments they have made.
Second, we need your support to close the funding gap of US$22 billion needed to fund service delivery and research.
Third, we need your support to urge to mobilise the scientific resources and political capital to develop a new TB vaccine.
Thank you all once again for your steadfast commitment to end TB.
Only by working together can we turn the tide against this ancient killer.
By the way, WHO is in full force at this board meeting: our Regional Director and Director of PAHO, Jarbas Barbosa, is here; and our Chief Scientist Jeremy Farrar is also here to discuss important developments in TB. Our Assistant Director-General for External Relations, Dr Catharina Boehme is also here, and of course our TB Director Tereza Kasaeva.
I’m not alone. I wanted to say it to the Chair because he said “Tedros is here”, but I’m here with many colleagues.
End TB? Yes, we can.
I thank you. Obrigado.