Geneva – On World TB Day, Unitaid joins the World Health Organization in its efforts to mobilize countries and partners to “Unite to end Tuberculosis”. This year’s focus is on the stigma, discrimination and marginalization that many people with tuberculosis (TB) in low-income countries face.
By developing shorter, more affordable and effective TB treatments and more user-friendly diagnostics, Unitaid is helping patients to access care more easily and breaking down stigma at the same time.
Most TB cases are cured with standard antibiotics but drug-resistant strains are emerging across the world, which are much harder to treat. Unitaid is committed to fighting resistance by investing in innovation to develop treatments for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) that are simpler, shorter, less toxic, and more affordable. Currently only half of MDR-TB patients on treatment are cured.
Unitaid has also helped introduce a new diagnostic tool that spots resistance to standard anti-TB medications in a matter of hours, and is now widely available in more than 130 countries. Better diagnostics are essential to guiding effective treatment and to helping to overcome indiscriminate prescription of antibiotics and other drugs that can fuel resistance.
Ending TB by 2030 is one of the UN Sustainable Development Goal targets. To achieve this, the international community, governments, civil society and the private sector must do their part to fight the stigma and discrimination associated with TB, accelerate access to care and treatment, and tackle drug resistance.
Various high-level political events this year will put a spotlight on efforts to end TB, including the G20 Summit in July, and the first Global Ministerial Conference on TB, to be held in Moscow in November. And in 2018 the UN General Assembly will organize the first High-level Meeting on TB.
“The increased political commitment to end TB is a positive development, but it will need to be matched with larger investments to ensure that those most vulnerable to TB have access to appropriate care and treatment,” said Lelio Marmora, Unitaid’s Executive Director.
