The World Health Organization has called on governments, donors, the private sector, civil society, and academia to mobilize adequate resources that will guarantee additional domestic financial support for TB control in order to accelerate breakthroughs and uptake of innovations towards ending the epidemic by 2030.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti made the call in a message to commemorate this year’s World TB Day.
She said funding for TB prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services have continued to fall far short of estimated global needs, and the United Nations global target, thus urging all stakeholders to advocate for increased investment, and to ensure that TB services are integrated into the primary health care response to counter the catastrophic impact of COVID-19 on the fight against TB.
“In 2020, global spending on TB services fell to US$5.3 billion, and funding for research was US$901 million.
While national strategic plans and accompanying budgets for tuberculosis have grown in ambition, mobilization of funding has not kept pace. In Africa, governments contribute only 22% of the resources required to deliver adequate TB services, with 44% going unfunded, with 36% of all TB deaths occurring in Africa, failure to invest in the TB response is set to take a formidable toll on African countries. Increased investment can be a game-changer, and alleviate the preventable suffering and death of millions of our people.
To reach the target, TB incidence would have had to record an annual decline of 4% to 5% in 2020, increasing to 10% per year by 2025, and then to an average 17% annually in the following decade.”
World TB day is 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 as the year’s theme, “Invest to end TB. Save lives”, emphasizes the urgent need to invest the resources necessary to ramp up the fight against TB, and realize the commitments to end TB made by global leaders particularly as the 2030 deadline looms.
