Dear Friends, Colleagues and Partners,
2018 has been a historic year in the fight to end TB. Never before have we had a political declaration for TB endorsed by Heads of State to accelerate the TB response and a UN High Level Meeting on TB. This has been the culmination of intensive joint work and collaboration, that began with the WHO Global Ministerial Conference on Ending TB in Moscow in November 2017, followed by several regional events, the Interactive Civil Society Hearing in June and other key events.
The next five years will be critical for us to ensure that the momentum we have now is translated into an accelerated End TB response. The UN High Level Meeting targets of finding and treating 40 million people with TB including 3.5 million children and 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB, as well as providing preventive treatment to 30 million individuals by 2022, should guide and focus all our efforts going forward. This is well aligned with WHO’s overall strategic priorities in it’s 13th General Programme of Work and triple billion targets, as well as the new joint initiative and WHO Director-General Flagship along with the Stop TB Partnership and the Global Fund: Find.Treat.All #EndTB. Ministries of Health together with other relevant Ministers, working with WHO, partners, academia, parliamentarians, and civil society under the aegis of Heads of State are now moving forward to make these commitments a reality. We have seen this momentum already including through WHO high level missions jointly with partners undertaken to high TB burden countries such as Viet Nam, Philippines, Mongolia and Pakistan.
It is heartening to see countries taking the important step of setting up national accountability bodies, consistent with the draft WHO multisectoral accountability framework that has been developed with inputs from countries, partners and civil society as requested by the World Health Assembly, and which we aim to finish and help countries pursue in 2019, in keeping with the political declaration of the High-Level Meeting. Civil society has been at the forefront of efforts to galvanize intensified and accelerated action, the WHO revamped civil society taskforce will continue to contribute to these efforts. WHO is also leading the way in responding to the request of Member States to develop a global strategy for TB research and innovation in consultation with national TB programmes, research networks, funders, civil society and other partners.
Major improvement in treatment outcomes and quality of life of patients with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) are expected, following key changes in MDR-TB treatment resulting from an assessment of the latest evidence on the efficacy and safety of medicines available to treat MDR-TB by an independent panel of experts convened by WHO. In 2018, WHO also announced important changes to its guidelines on TB preventive treatment services for high TB burden settings, recommending shorter preventive treatment regimen and expanding the target populations to consider for preventive treatment. WHO is supporting countries in implementing these new guidelines together with partners.
We at the WHO Global TB Programme are pleased to have worked with so many of you this year. Many thanks to all of you for your contributions to our work on policy development and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, research, joint support to countries and advocacy. My thanks to the Stop TB Partnership and other key partners for your close collaboration. Presented below are some of the key highlights of our joint efforts to guide and support the TB response, at country, regional and global levels. With such collective action, we can help to make a difference for the millions of people who are struggling with TB, as well as their families and communities. We pledge to build on this growing momentum, working towards a brighter future for all TB patients and affected communities, and the goal of ending unnecessary deaths and suffering.
On a personal note, this week marks one year since I took office as Director of the WHO Global TB Programme. I have been overwhelmed by your support and collaboration in this exciting and productive year. My heartfelt thanks to you all, and to my WHO colleagues especially from regional and country offices.
I look forward to the coming year and beyond with optimism and preparedness to join forces and work hard - as the culmination of our work will only be when we end this top infectious killer.
As you prepare for the end of the year, best wishes to you, your colleagues and loved ones. Happy holidays, and I wish you a happy, healthy and fruitful 2019!
Dr Tereza Kasaeva
Director
Global TB Programme
World Health Organization