Geneva — The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) and the Stop TB Partnership yesterday signed a new collaboration framework with the aim of increasing momentum towards ending tuberculosis (TB) in low- and middle-income countries by 2030.
The oldest pandemic afflicting humanity, TB is the leading infectious disease killer globally and one of the most common causes of death among people living with HIV. The Global Fund provides 76% of all international financing for TB, while the Stop TB Partnership aligns more than 2000 partner organizations all over the world to lead global advocacy, high-level political engagement in TB response, support of communities and people affected by TB, address rights and gender, and introduce new innovations and new tools to end TB.
"The Stop TB Partnership and the Global Fund share a common commitment and vision of a world free from TB, where universal health coverage is implemented and where the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations are achieved," said Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. "We are seeing unprecedented determination and leadership across affected countries to beat this terrible disease, we have a large number of new innovations to prevent, diagnose and treat TB and the most vibrant civil society, communities networks and organizations, so we cannot and we will not stop now. We miss the funding to go full speed ahead, but we will not give up because we are closer than ever to decisive progress by 2030."
"TB is a formidable adversary, but one we know how to defeat," said Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund. "New advancements in TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment, including innovative tools such as mobile diagnostic units, AI capabilities in screening and testing, as well as shorter treatment regimens, are redefining the way we fight TB now and in the future, bringing new hope. By working even more closely with the Stop TB Partnership, we will scale up the use of these tools and get significant reductions in their price to steepen our trajectory towards ending TB."
Under the new four-year non-financial agreement, the Global Fund and Stop TB commit to increasing their collaboration on a wide spectrum of advocacy, policy, technical and programmatic areas. A top priority set in the agreement is to support countries to diagnose early and treat all people with TB, including drug-susceptible TB and drug-resistant TB, to continue the work in breaking the gender- and human rights-related barriers that prevent people with TB accessing the services they need and to address TB stigma.
Another key objective is to boost TB preventive treatment through improved access to quality-assured, affordable medicines and diagnostics, as well as by driving innovation and accelerating new product introduction.
As per the new agreement, the two organizations will also continue to work on strengthening critical elements of health systems in the affected countries: supporting community health workers, improving access to the latest WHO-recommended diagnosis, enhancing use of data for decision-making, strengthening supply chains and pursuing integrated approaches, including through primary health care, to enable the delivery of critical services to people with all forms of TB.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
The new agreement comes as the latest figures released by the World Health Organization in the Global Tuberculosis Report 2024 highlight mixed progress in the global fight against TB. Although TB deaths are falling and access to treatment is up persistent challenges remain, including increasing TB incidence, no progress on access to rapid molecular diagnosis and drug-resistant tuberculosis diagnosis and treatment, as well as the impact of conflict, displacement, undernutrition, climate change and poverty.
