Dear colleagues,
As The Union enters its 95th year, I write you with an urgent appeal to join us in revitalising the global fight against tuberculosis.
Given the tools we have, many of which were developed by Union members, TB should have already been resigned to the dustbin of history. Instead, as I argue in the most recent issue of Global Health and Diplomacy, TB is actually becoming a more virulent threat to our collective security.
I propose that now is the time advance a global TB security agenda—one that prevents the emergence of antibiotic resistance, halts the spread of resistant strains, delivers effective treatment, and provides critical psycho-social support to patients and families who are impacted.
Today, I urge you to sign up as a Union member if you haven’t already. You can join online or by contacting membership@theunion.org.
In an age when the dangers posed by drug resistance are escalating, our mission is more urgent than ever before. We must find better treatment options for multidrug-resistant TB. We must train clinicians to use the most effective treatment practices. The Union and its members must seize the initiative to plot the final chapter in TB’s demise.
To accomplish this we will have to insist on an end to business as usual in the fight against TB. It is time for our community to lose its patience. It is time for us to demand action from our governments, our colleagues and ourselves.
Please join us today.
Best regards,
José Luis Castro
Executive Director