Stop TB Partnership

In 2015, the Stop TB Partnership launched the very ambitious Global Plan to End TB 2016 – 2020: The Paradigm Shift. Without a clear investment plan and a complete overhaul in how this disease is tackled, TB is unlikely to be eliminated until the end of the 22nd century.

TB does not stop at national borders, so policies to address TB in this population should not be constrained by local political concerns. There needs to be greater cooperation at the international level to improve TB surveillance, referrals and treatment across national health systems.

Globally, people who use drugs (PWUD) remain stigmatized and criminalized, which contributes to devastating health disparities, including extremely high rates of TB often combined with HIV and viral hepatitis.

Failures in health systems, occupational health (OH) services and TB infection control (TBIC), staffing shortages, supply issues, lack of funding, and lack of supervision, are putting the lives of HCWs, their families, and those they are tasked with caring for at risk.

The inability of governments to address the needs of large prison populations, the lack of financial support and training for prison health staff, and various comorbidities presenting among prisoners with TB make it difficult to deliver effective TB treatment in prisons, cause delays in diagnosis, facilitate rapid spread of infection, and trigger frequent treatment interruptions.

While HIV-induced immuno-suppression makes people living with HIV (PLHIV) extremely vulnerable to TB, stigma, absence of precise point-of-care diagnostics, and poor integration of TB and HIV services make TB particularly deadly for this population. Along with stigma, other factors such as gender, poverty and malnutrition promote delays in diagnosis, present barriers to treatment, and impact patients’ adherence to medications.

Global statistics indicate that the TB burden is more acute in urban areas. However, in countries where large portions of the population are rurally located and reside in extreme poverty, TB is dominant among rural dwellers.

Globally, the prevalence of TB is much higher in urban areas than in rural areas. Around 54% of the world’s population now lives in cities, with the most rapid rates of urbanization being witnessed in developing countries.

World leaders are meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for the UN Financing for Development Conference to discuss financing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a new set of global development targets. The draft SDG goals include a target to end the epidemic of tuberculosis by 2030, in line with the WHO End TB Strategy and the Global Plan to Stop TB 2016-2020.

The Global Plan 2016-2020 sets out the actions and resources needed over the next five years to set the world on a course to end the global TB epidemic by 2030, as endorsed by world leaders in the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals.