Your Excellency Minister Nísia Trindade,
Your Excellency Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin,
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, and thank you all for being here so early, which is a clear sign of your commitment to this critically important issue.
Tuberculosis is one of the oldest diseases known to humanity, and remains one of the deadliest.
Every year, TB kills more than 1 million people, and at least 10 million people fall ill with TB.
It also has severe economic consequences. About half of patients experience catastrophic costs.
Since 2000, 75 million lives have been saved through treatment for people with TB, and those with HIV co-infection.
However, hunger and poverty, climate change, and protracted wars are further fuelling the epidemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic also disrupted services for TB, resulting in hundreds of thousands of excess cases and deaths.
This week’s second high-level meeting on TB offers an important opportunity to renew our commitments to end TB.
In the Sustainable Development Goals, countries committed to the target of ending the global TB epidemic by 2030.
It’s an extremely ambitious but achievable target.
We have new and powerful tools to do it, including rapid 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 is why I am so pleased to inaugurate the new WHO TB vaccine accelerator council, to facilitate the development, licensing and equitable use of new TB vaccines.
This platform will work to expand the development and testing of vaccine candidates, close financing gaps, and establish pathways to equitable and affordable access to vaccines.
WHO estimates that over 25 years, a vaccine that is 50% effective in preventing TB disease among adolescents and adults could save 8.5 million lives.
It would also reduce the need for antibiotic treatment and save billions of dollars in costs faced by TB affected households, most of whom are poor and vulnerable.
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated what is possible – that with political and financial commitment, new and powerful vaccines can be developed quickly and distributed widely.
I am very pleased that Minister Trindade and Minister Budi have agreed to co-chair and guide this council.
Your leadership is key to bringing our aspirations to fruition.
Together, we can turn the tide on this ancient killer.
I thank you.