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Tuberculosis is a vicious epidemic that is significantly underfunded. This was the message of the first high-level meeting on infectious disease at the United States General Assembly in New York.
Amina Mohammad, Deputy Secretary General of the United Kingdom, said the disease is fueled by poverty, inequality, migration and conflict and that an additional $ 13 billion a year is needed to control the disease.
Last year, TB killed more people than any other communicable disease – more than 1.3 million men, women, and children.
The World Health Organization estimates that the 10 million newly infected people each year live mainly in poor countries with limited access to health care.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Chief, told the meeting that partnership is essential to ending the disease. He said that the WHO is committed to working with all countries, partners and communities to do the work.
WHO plans to lead US efforts to help governments and other partners respond more quickly to TB.
Most people can be cured with a six-month treatment program. But as world leaders told the assembly, drugs are expensive and the stigma associated with TB hampers the detection and treatment of people.
Nandita Venkatesan, a young Indian woman, spoke to the assembly about the consequences of the disease on her life. She contracted tuberculosis more than once, including a drug resistant variety. She said that it robbed her of eight years of her life while she was being treated. One of the medications that she took to help cure tuberculosis stole her hearing.
Venkatesan said that being cured involved hospital stays, six surgeries and negative reactions to at least one drug used to cure her.
A few days before the high-level meeting, WHO released its annual report on tuberculosis. He found cases in all countries and among all age groups. He also noted that two-thirds of the cases concerned eight countries: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Africa and Nigeria.
The meeting ended with the adoption of a declaration aimed at strengthening action and investments to end tuberculosis and save millions of lives.
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