RESULTS UK welcomes new resolve at the Global Ministerial Conference on Tuberculosis, Moscow

MOSCOW, 17 November 2017: RESULTS UK welcomes the outcome of the Moscow Ministerial Conference (16-17 November, 2017), which holds promise that the world is finally starting to show enough resolve to tackle TB, the deadliest infectious disease in human history.

In the Moscow Declaration to End TB, 100 countries committed to scaling up the world’s response to the TB epidemic, calling on other global stakeholders to invest more in TB programmes and to accelerate research and development (R&D) for new tools to fight TB. The Declaration is a sign of growing—but still insufficient—resolve to take steps needed to end TB.

Civil society participants at the Conference welcomed the Declaration, emphasising the need to build on this new political resolve, but warned that talking is not enough. RESULTS UK Executive Director Aaron Oxley said:

“We are thrilled to see Ministers of Health coming together to outline what they will do to tackle tuberculosis. But ending the epidemic also needs action that sits outside of Health Ministries’ areas of responsibility, so Heads of State also need to take up the challenge.”

In a statement signed by 86 organisations, advocates called for WHO leadership to steer this political momentum toward a higher-level global commitment to make high-quality treatment available to all people with TB. Building on commitments made by Ministers of Health, Heads of State will gather in September 2018 for the first-ever UN High-Level Meeting on TB. This will be a vital opportunity to increase the level of political will to end TB.

Aaron Oxley added: ‘If Ministers of Health need help convincing their Finance Ministers to become allies in escalating this to the Head of State, look no further than the recently released Price of a Pandemic report from the Global TB Caucus. If nothing changes in the fight against TB, the disease could cost the global economy nearly US $1 trillion by 2030.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact Naveed Chaudhri on naveed.chaudhri@results.org.uk or on 0207 793 3970.

RESULTS UK is a movement of passionate, committed, everyday people who together use their voices to influence political decisions that will bring an end to poverty. For more information please visit www.results.org.uk.