The high -level meeting has been described by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an unprecedented step by governments and all members participated in the fight against TB.
There is a year after a Ministerial Conference on TB completed in Moscow last November, which resulted in high -level commitments of ministers and other leaders from 120 countries to accelerate progress to end the disease.
Mrs. Mohammed described TB as a “vicious epidemic”, which infects about 10.4 million people around the world, and is fed by poverty, inequality, migration and conflict.
The disease, he added, exists in a “vicious circle that will require an approach to all the systems that explain the social drivers that perpetuate their propagation.”
Better health and social welfare systems are needed, and more investments to stop this global health crisis, and better tools are needed to overcome antimicrobial resistance: about 60,000 cases of TB resistant to medications are reported every year.
The Undersecretary General requested an approach to end the TB that adopts an approach throughout the system, promoting the broader health and well -being of the entire communities and the separation of “specific diseases of the disease and unique objectives.”
Although TB affects all countries and continents, more than half of all new cases occur in only five countries: in some countries, including Mozambique, the Philippines and South Africa, there are 500 cases per 100,000 people, while in high -income countries there are less than 10 per 100,000. Mrs. Mohammed said that much more progress is needed so that the UN continues with her promise to leave anyone behind.
However, progress, he added, is possible if efforts to end the epidemic are based on the best data and sciences, informed decisions, empowered communities and a strategic and well -financed action.
Mrs. Mohammed said that who will direct Cross-un efforts to support governments, working together with civil society and all partners to boost a faster response to TB.
Only one week, on September 18, WHO published its latest global tuberculosis report, which showed that countries are not doing enough to end TB, and that financing is the most urgent obstacle.
The meeting concluded with the adoption of an ambitious political statement on TB, backed by the heads of state, which aims to strengthen the action and investments for the end of TB, and save millions of lives.
