Moscow Declaration to end Tuberculosis (TB)
The World Health Organization (WHO) organized the WHO Global Ministerial Conference in Moscow, Russia from 16-17, November 2017. The conference was attended by more than 1000 participants including Ministers and leaders from UN agencies, civil society, partners, private sector, philanthropies, academia and donors1.
75 ministers agreed to take urgent action to end tuberculosis (TB) by 2030. The announcement came at the first WHO Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Tuberculosis in the Sustainable Development Era: A Multi-sectoral Response, which brought together delegates from 114 countries in Moscow. President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation opened the Conference, together with Amina J Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary General, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
The Moscow Declaration to End TB is a promise to increase multi-sectoral action, track progress, and build accountability. It will also inform the first UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on TB in 2018, which will seek further commitments from heads of states.
Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 53 million lives since 2000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 37%. However, progress in many countries has stalled, global targets are off-track, and persistent gaps remain in TB care and prevention.
As a result, TB still kills more people than any other infectious disease. There are major problems associated with antimicrobial resistance, and it is the leading killer of people with HIV.
The conference resulted in collective commitment to ramp-up action on four fronts:
- Move rapidly to achieve universal health coverage by strengthening health systems and improving access to people-centered TB prevention and care, ensuring no one is left behind.
- Mobilize sufficient and sustainable financing through increased domestic and international investments to close gaps in implementation and research.
- Advance research and development for new tools to diagnose, treat, and prevent TB.
- Build accountability through a framework to track and review progress on ending TB, including multisectoral approaches.
Ministers also promised to minimize the risk and spread of drug resistance and do more to engage people and communities affected by, and at risk of, TB.
From India, Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, reaffirmed India's commitment to eliminating TB by 2025. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare also organized a side event at the conference on 'Ending TB: Our Promise to Our People' assisted by Global Coalition against TB to be attended by 7 MPs and other world leaders2.
Speaking at the first high level plenary, Shri Nadda said that India has ended polio and will use a similar intensified effort to end TB also. The National Strategic Plan for TB elimination in India has essentially four pillars to address the major challenges for TB control - "Detect, Treat, Build and Prevent". "This plan requires a significant increase in the budget compared to previous NSP and I am happy to share with you that this plan is fully funded and most of this is through domestic resources," Shri Nadda elaborated.
Shri Nadda informed the participants that the Indian government has given top priority to address the quality of care for patients. 25% of the budget is earmarked for direct interventions in this area. This includes free diagnosis with rapid molecular tests, free treatment with best quality drugs and regimens, financial and nutritional support to patients, online TB notification systems, mobile technology based adherence monitoring system, interphase agencies for better private sector engagements, policy for transparent service purchase schemes, stronger community engagements, communication campaigns, regulatory systems to capture information on all those consuming anti-TB drugs etc.
Shri Nadda also said that India is a major manufacturer of anti-TB drugs for the world, having almost an 80% global market share. "We give only the best quality drugs to our patients, whether within the country or abroad. There is a wide scope for us to sit together and discuss seriously about promoting generic drugs for TB patients all over the world, I have no doubt that together we can make TB treatment affordable to all in the world. We owe it to the millions of TB patients and we owe it to ourselves".
The top thematic priorities of this conference based on the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and the UNGA (United Nations General Assembly) high level health themes include Universal Health Coverage, Increased and Sustainable Financing and Scientific Research and Innovation.
Footnotes
1 http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/commitment-end-tuberculosis/en/
2 http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=173580
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