As the International Community commemorates ‘World TB Day’ , the World Health Organisation, WHO has promised two billion dollars per year for TB research in the face of growing concerns around drug-resistant TB, funding for TB prevention as diagnosis and treatment services continue to fall far short of estimated global needs, and the United Nations global target.
WHO also announced that world leaders have agreed to mobilize thirteen billion dollars per year to finance TB prevention and treatment by 2022.
The Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moetidisclosed this during while observing this year’s ‘World TB Day’ aimed at raising public awareness and understanding about one of the globe’s deadliest infectious diseases, as well as its devastating health, social and economic impacts.
Dr. Moeti, who unveiled this year’s theme as “Invest to end TB. Save lives” emphasized urgent need to invest the resources necessary to ramp up the fight against TB, and realize the commitments made by global leaders to end it.
She said that while national strategic plans and accompanying budgets for tuberculosis have grown in ambition, mobilization of funding has not kept pace as in 2020, global spending on TB services fell to five point three billion dollars, and funding for research was nine hundred and one million dollars.
While lamenting that African governments contribute only twenty-two percent of the resources required to deliver adequate TB services, with forty-four percent going unfunded Dr. Moeti counted South Africa and Zambia as the best examples of high TB burden countries that have steadily increased domestic funding specifically allocated for TB.
She called on government at all levels to mobilize additional domestic financial support for TB control,including contributions to the Global Fund, which last month launched its eighteen billion Seventh Replenishment Campaign to counter the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on the fight against TB urging all stakeholders to advocate for increased investment, to ensure that TB services are integrated into the primary health care response.
Dr. Moeti appealed to donors, the private sector, civil society and academia to pay increased attention to urgently boosting investment in the fight against TB and in TB research, in order to accelerate technological breakthroughs and uptake of innovations towards ending TB by 2030.
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