Gandhinagar (Gujarat) [India], August 17 : The WHO South-East Asia Region on Thursday committed to further accelerate efforts to end tuberculosis by 2030 with member countries adopting the Gandhinagar Declaration.
The South-East Asia Region bears a disproportionate burden of nearly half of the global TB cases and deaths, as per a WHO release.
Regional Director WHO South-East Asia, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh in her address to a ministerial meeting ‘Sustain, Accelerate, and Innovate to end TB in the South-East Asia Region’ on Thursday said: “Today, urgent action is needed more than ever to achieve our goal of a region free of tuberculosis, that has been menacing millions of people with disease and death, poverty, and despair.”
The Gandhinagar Declaration was adopted at the end of the two-day meeting held to follow up on the progress made to end TB, a flagship priority in the Region, and in the run-up to the UN High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on TB on 22 September in New York, as per the release issued by WHO.
The Declaration calls for establishing a high-level multi-sectoral commission reporting to the highest political level in each country for synergy of efforts among various stakeholders, and to monitor progress towards ending TB and other priority diseases.
Singh said: “These high-level multisectoral commission on TB could also help build responsive health systems and advance universal health coverage and health security.” She added that during the COVID pandemic, TB infrastructure was rapidly deployed for infection diagnosis and containment.
As per the WHO release, the declaration calls for ensuring the appropriate adoption and use of science and technology for equitable and human rights-based TB services that are accessible to all irrespective of any social, cultural, or demographic divide through an integrated, primary healthcare approach.
It emphasises the allocation of necessary resources to meet TB service coverage targets and address social determinants to have a multi-disease impact.
The WHO Regional Director said: “In 2022, TB allocations in the Region reached USD 1.4 billion, of which 60 per cent was from domestic sources. However, for mission success, we need at least USD 3 billion annually, which will also help maintain key social protection programmes, such as nutritional support. Let us build on the substantial increases already achieved.”
The Regional Director also emphasised empowering and engaging TB-affected communities, by not just listening to, but truly hearing them.
The declaration calls on WHO to maintain TB as a Flagship Priority Programme over the coming years and provide leadership and technical support to countries for sustained and accelerated approaches supported by research and innovation, according to the official release.
It calls upon all partners to enhance their support to end TB and priority diseases in the Region as per the UN Sustainable Development Goals target 3.3 - End the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases, and other communicable diseases, as per the official release.
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