It comes a year after an End TB Ministerial Conference held in Moscow last November, which resulted in high-level commitments from ministers and other leaders from 120 countries to accelerate progress to end the disease.
Ms Mohammed described tuberculosis as a “cruel epidemic”, infecting some 10.4 million people worldwide and fueled by poverty, inequality, migration and conflict.
The disease, he added, exists in a “vicious cycle that will require a whole-systems approach that takes into account the social factors that perpetuate its spread.”
Better health and social welfare systems, and more investment, are needed to stop this global health crisis, and better tools are needed to overcome antimicrobial resistance: about 60,000 cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis are reported each year.
The Deputy Secretary-General called for a system-wide approach to ending tuberculosis, promoting the broader health and well-being of entire communities and breaking away from “single targets and single disease-specific targets”.
Although tuberculosis affects all countries and continents, more than half of all new cases occur in just five countries: in some countries – including Mozambique, the Philippines and South Africa – there are 500 cases per 100,000 people, while in high-income countries there are fewer than 10 per 100,000. Ms. Mohammed said much more progress is needed for the UN to fulfill its promise to leave no one behind.
However, he added, progress is possible if efforts to end the epidemic are based on the best data and science, informed decisions, empowered communities and strategic, well-funded actions.
Ms Mohammed said WHO will lead United Nations-wide efforts to support governments, working together with civil society and all partners to drive a faster response to tuberculosis.
Just a week ago, on September 18, the WHO released its latest Global Tuberculosis Report, which showed that countries are not doing enough to end tuberculosis and that financing is the most pressing obstacle.
The meeting concluded with the adoption of an ambitious Political Declaration on TB, endorsed by Heads of State, which aims to strengthen actions and investments to end TB and save millions of lives.