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Written By: Editorial Team | Updated : August 25, 2018 3:21 PM IST
Tuberculosis has been eclipsed by HIV/AIDS as a focus of global attention and donor funding. It is the world's number one killer among infectious disease. Next month, when the world leaders would gather at the United Nations, they will be asked to change that by committing to end the tuberculosis pandemic by 2030. And to come up with USD 13 billion annually to achieve the goal.
According to the PTI report, the row between the United States and South Africa threatens to cast a pall over the first high-level meeting on tuberculosis, to be held on the sidelines of the General Assembly meeting in New York.
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates will be among the headliners of the TB summit on September 26. His global fund has done game-changing work to boost public health in poor countries.
Gates said in a post on Twitter "TB is not a disease of the past, but if the world works together to fight it, I have no doubt it can be."
The talks have dragged on after South Africa opposed US proposals to delete language that recognizes the right of poorer countries to access cheaper medicines. But the two months of negotiations on a final declaration were scheduled to wrap up in July. Diplomats said negotiations were continuing on a possible compromise.
Medical charity MSF has applauded South Africa's stance and urged countries to resist what it has described as "an aggressive push" by the US pharmaceutical lobby to restrict access to low-cost drugs.
Last year, the World Health Organization sounded the alarm when it said tuberculosis had surpassed HIV/AIDS as the world's number one infectious killer and was the ninth cause of death worldwide.
About 1.7 million people died from TB in 2016 out of 10.4 million worldwide who became ill from the severe lung infection, according to the WHO.
By stepping up investment and innovation to fight the disease a 30-point final declaration under negotiation would commit governments to end the global tuberculosis epidemic by 2030.
By 2022, governments would agree to mobilize at least USD 13 billion a year for treatment and care and an additional USD 2 billion to fund research at a time when tuberculosis is becoming more resistant to antibiotics.
Five countries are the hardest-hit by the TB pandemic: India, which accounts for a quarter of cases, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, and Pakistan, but it remains unclear whether these nations are sending high-level officials to the summit.
Non-governmental organizations say leaders from key donor countries like the United States, Britain, France, Germany, and Canada must turn up for the meeting to be ground-breaking.
Paula Fujiwara, the scientific director of the Paris-based International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease reportedly said, "TB is not just a health issue. TB is an economic issue, a development issue, a security issue and we need leadership from heads of states."
She also added that if leaders from heads of states do not deliver by September, then her organisation will do everything in its power to hold them accountable for the lives lost.
According to UN officials, about 33 heads of state and government have so far said they will attend.
Next month at the UN summit, world leaders will pledge to provide diagnosis and treatment to 40 million people with TB from 2018 to 2022, including 3.5 million children.
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