The Union today welcomed the STOP TB Partnership's updated Global Plan to End TB 2018-2022, launched today in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) welcomes the STOP TB Partnership's updated Global Plan to End TB 2018-2022, launched today in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The new updated Global Plan is an investment plan providing a roadmap for how countries can transform the response to tuberculosis (TB). It prescribes ways in which countries can reach the latest targets for treatment and prevention, research and development, and TB established by the UN General Assembly in 2018. The new version of the plan updates the 2016-2020 edition.
“The Global Plan is a landmark document for accelerating the response to TB worldwide”, said Paula I Fujiwara, Scientific Director of The Union and Chair of the Partnership’s Global Plan Task Force. “The Union calls on governments to embrace accountability for fulfilling their commitments made in the United Nations political declaration of 2018 to end TB and to implement the Global Plan with the urgency that the TB challenge demands.”
The Global Plan provides nine different “investment packages” with priority actions that governments can adopt based on their specific epidemiological situation. These investment packages are designed to help countries reach 90 percent of people in need with TB care and services, including among populations who are particularly vulnerable to TB, and to achieve a treatment success rate of 90 percent by 2022. The Global Plan also lays out a clear framework through which countries can invest their fair share of financing in TB research and development, which is essential for delivering the new diagnostics, medicines and vaccines needed to end the TB epidemic.
“Investing in TB is not just a public health policy but a sound economic intervention too”, said Fujiwara. “As the Global Plan’s new modelling makes clear, countries can expect to see US$ 44 in economic benefit for every US dollar invested, with a net global economic benefit of US$ 711 billion for fully implementing the Global Plan. Investing in the Global Plan is a win-win for governments, for TB-affected communities and for the world.“