This week, on 24 March, all people engaged in the fight against poverty and disease celebrate World TB Day. Tuberculosis (TB) is today the top infectious killer of humanity with its 1.7 million victims every year, meaning nearly 5000 people dying every day from a preventable and curable disease, and with its over 10 million people affectedevery year. TB can affect all, but it often strikes the poorest among the poor, and the most vulnerable people: little boys and girls,men and women, those living with HIV and diabetes, the malnourished, the poor desperate migrants and refugees, the homeless, the prisoners, the smokers, those who abuse alcohol and illicit drugs. TB is everywhere and not a single country has ever eliminated it. Efforts to end TB have resulted in progress: 53 million lives have been saved since 2000 and deaths have decreased by more than half in the past quarter of a century. We need this progress to accelerate so that we can save more people and move towards ending TB.
This year, World Tuberculosis (TB) Day is a forerunner to the most historical event in the fight to end TB. In September 2018, heads-of-state will come together at the first-ever United Nations (UN) General Assembly High-Level Meeting (UN HLM) on TB in New York. TB will be in the highest political spotlight for the first time in history, following a remarkable Ministerial Conference on Ending TB in Moscow in November 2017. The Moscow event resulted in a political declaration signed by ministers and their delegates from over 120 countries calling for access to proper care for all, sustained financing, and investments in research and innovations. It also called for an accountability framework to monitor efforts of countries and stakeholders, and keep those responsible focused on the aim.In reality, declarations have been made before and often ignored later: however, an accountability mechanism at the highest level is what can make the difference in keeping stakeholders focused on the promises. Hopefully, this call from ministers of health will be heard from their heads of state, so that one can guarantee the commitment for the years to come. And political commitment means doing the right thing where it is necessary with proper resources: from the capital city to the district hospital and the most peripheral clinics and health posts.
CUAMM is fully engaged in this continuous fight against this disease that comes from extreme poverty. CUAMM operates in seven African countries, helping local health workers and governments manage 15 hospitals and 100 health centres. People affected by TB, including those who are HIV-co-infected and those with highly drug-resistant forms of TB, have access to patient-centred care until cure in the facilities where CUAMM doctors are working. In addition, CUAMM staff contribute with operational research work to assess the best and most innovative ways to diagnose, treat and prevent TB. For instance, CUAMM knows well that TB is often accompanied by other diseases. For this reason, CUAMM looks at the person as one and combines the treatment of TB with that for HIV in those who have both diseases. The same principles apply to people who suffer from diabetes who, like in the case of the people living with HIV, have an increased risk of TB. CUAMM doctors treat all and provide access to care and protect the people affected so that they do not get further impoverished by the long treatment of TB and the loss of income that this generates.
CUAMM remains fully committed to end TB and to contribute to reaching the ambitious TB targets that have been set as part of both the WHO new strategy and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Doctor Mario Raviglione, Board Member Doctors with Africa CUAMM
Don Dante Carraro, Director Doctors with Africa CUAMM
