Please find below a number of resources you can use for World TB Day. Included in the resources are a statement from GFAN Speaker Timur Abdullaev, links to Stop TB Resources, links to resources about COVID-19 and TB, and some social media tools.
Please note that given the current Global COVID-19 crisis, the language used below may be changed or adapted if needed.
Statement from GFAN Speaker Timur Abdullaev on World TB
Day:
The world today is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic that is testing
the limits of our global health infrastructure. As the world comes to grip with this pandemic
and the resulting ramifications, it is important to not lose sight of the three
epidemics and the global fight that impacts the lives of millions of people
around the world each and every day – and has for decades and generations.
Today on World TB Day, lets take a look at the impact of TB, a disease that ...
The 2019 G-FINDER Report: “[This] project has provided policy-makers, donors, researchers and industry with a comprehensive analysis of global investment into research and development (R&D) of new products to prevent, diagnose, control or cure neglected diseases in developing countries. It provides an up-to-date analysis of how R&D investments are being allocated across diseases and product types, funding trends over time, and where the potential gaps lie. This is the twelfth annual G-FINDER report, providing new data on investments made in financial
year 2018. In all, 262 organisations completed the survey for FY2018, which covered 36 neglected diseases and all relevant product types – drugs, vaccines, biologics, diagnostics, microbicides and vector control products (chemical and biological control agents, and reservoir targeted vaccines) – as well as basic research.”
“This updated Global Plan to End TB 2018–2022 reflects the progress made over the last five years and is intended to support the achievement of the UNHLM commitments set for 2022. By implementing the Global Plan’s priority actions and mobilizing the needed funding, national governments and TB programmes, backed by stronger worldwide advocacy, can put us on track to end TB by 2030, in line with the SDGs.”
“TAG has tracked TB research and development (R&D) funding since 2005 as one way to evaluate progress on eliminating TB. In every year since then, annual investments have fallen far short of the widely accepted US$2 billion minimum funding target. At the United Nations High-Level Meeting on TB (HLM) in the fall of 2018, delegates endorsed a political declaration that contained a commitment to increase annual global TB research funding to US$2 billion. The data presented in this year’s report represent expenditures on TB research in fiscal year 2018 and provide the baseline against which we will measure states’ performance towards this US$2 billion annual target in the years to come.”
“The World Health Organization (WHO) has updated its guidance for the use of lateral flow urine lipoarabinomannan assay (LAM) in the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB). Tests based on the detection of mycobacterial LAM antigen in urine have emerged as potential point-of-care tests for TB. The WHO Global TB Programme recommended the use of LF-LAM for the first time in 2015. Urinary LAM assays have shown greater sensitivity when used for the diagnosis of TB in people living with HIV. The sensitivity increases significantly in patients with lower CD4 cell counts. Following the new evidence, WHO is now recommending LF-LAM use to assist in diagnosis in a broader group of people, both in inpatient and outpatient settings.”
This report aims to define what provision of TB services in “the context of progress towards UHC” looks like in practice, and to what extent the recognition of the codependency of achieving TB and UHC at international fora like the UN and WHO translates to action at ground level. It defines an essential set of services that would both help to make the TB response “universal” and help to make the TB response contribute to the achievement of UHC more broadly.
