NTCA Report on UN High-Level Meeting on the Fight to End TB

NTCA Report:

United Nations High-Level Meeting on the Fight to End TB

New York City - September 27, 2018

Yesterday’s United Nations High-Level Meeting to End Tuberculosis (#UHMLHTB) is now part of TB history. Today, the real work begins! The political declaration , while falling short of what the TB advocacy community had initially envisioned, is the first ever agreed upon statement about the enormity of the TB burden and outlines concrete steps to end TB which have been endorsed by all member nations! The meeting is a huge step forward, but much remains to be done as we work to end TB!

Operationalizing the Political Declaration

(Pictured in photo: Ed Zuroweste, Donna Hope Wegener, Diana Fortune.)

Although the majority of countries did not make bold claims on how they would operationalize the declaration, there were a few stellar pronouncements:

In addition to the funding commitment, the UK announced a UK-led study marks shift towards genetic era in tackling TB. This landmark study, part-funded by the MRC, “may herald a quicker, more tailored treatment for the millions of people around the world living with tuberculosis".

The USG announced USAID will launch a $30 million “Global Accelerator to End TB,” increasing financial support to meet the UNHLMTB target of treating 40 million people with the disease by 2022.

Advocacy and a Road Map for the Future

(Pictured in photo: Donna Hope Wegener, Kate O'Brien, Diana Fortune.)

The media coverage of the #UNHLMTB has included released statements from advocacy organizations about the HLM, publications announcing recent developments in TB R&D, and key documents providing a road map for future TB research.

TAG and other global organizations published a commentary, “What the UN Political Declaration Should Have Said.” This statement can be accessed here, a joint statement on the occasion of today's UN High-level Meeting on TB, from Health GAP, Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA), The Global Tuberculosis Community Advisory Board (TB CAB), International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), The Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN), SECTION27, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), and Treatment Action Group (TAG).
The National Institutes of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) released the Strategic Plan for TB Research.
NEJM published an article on exciting results of vaccine development work by Aeras and GlaxoSmithKline, was published on 9/25/18, "Phase 2b Controlled Trial of M72/AS01E Vaccine to Prevent Tuberculosis."
In advance of the UNHLMTB, the New York Times published an article, "'Latent’ TB Infection? It’s Not That Common, Experts Find." NTCA, and other organizations, are preparing a response.

There were many side meetings associated with the UNHLMTB and we will showcase some of these meetings in future communications.

Diana Fortune, President

Donna Hope Wegener, Executive Director

National TB Controllers Association

Background on the Meeting

For background on the importance of this meeting, see the background FAQ , and the political declaration of the meeting . For additional indepth information and insight, listen to Dr. Eric Goosby, UN Special Envoy on TB, on CSIS's Take as Directed podcast and read the Stop TB Partnership UNHLM web page . For information on what was covered, see the meeting agenda.