Your Excellency Minister Budi,
Honourable Ministers, distinguished delegates, dear colleagues and friends,
I thank my friend, Minister Budi, and the government of Indonesia for your leadership on health, and for prioritizing TB as part of your G20 Presidency.
Tuberculosis remains one of the world’s leading infectious killers.
Despite being a preventable, treatable and curable disease, this ancient scourge kills more than 1.5 million people each year and affects millions more.
The impacts on families, communities, health systems and economies are enormous.
Let me remind you that in the Sustainable Development Goals, all countries have committed to ending the TB epidemic by 2030.
That is no small ambition.
But the gains we have made in recent years give us hope that together, we can achieve it.
In the last two decades, more than 66 million people have received access to TB services.
Deaths from TB have dropped by around 40% since 2000.
But these hard-won gains are at risk, as we all know.
The COVID-19 pandemic has set us back, disrupting essential services to prevent, detect and treat TB in many countries.
As a result, WHO has reported an increase in TB deaths for the first time in more than a decade – and that’s very tragic.
Conflicts in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen are further jeopardising access to services for people with TB.
To get back on track to meet the TB targets of the SDGs and WHO’s End TB Strategy, we need strong leadership in high-burden countries, and from the international community.
I would like to emphasize three priorities for action:
First, we urge countries to intensify efforts to restore essential life-saving TB services that have been disrupted.
Rapid uptake of the latest WHO policies on TB prevention and care can significantly improve outcomes for those affected.
This is the only way to end preventable TB deaths. As COVID-19 and TB have similar symptoms, we need wide testing for both diseases, so that people can get the treatment they need.
Second, we need to urgently scale up investments to increase access to services for TB prevention and care, to accelerate progress towards the 2022 targets. Lives depend upon it.
Today, less than half of the 13 billion US dollars annual funding needs are met, even though we know that investing in ending TB is highly cost-effective.
Again, I thank Indonesia for highlighting this shortfall as part of its G20 Presidency.
Increasing domestic public financing is the most sustainable way of closing this gap, as part of every country’s journey towards universal health coverage.
At the same time, countries with weaker economies have inadequate fiscal capacity to expand public financing, especially following the enormous socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19.
These countries will need additional external support in the short and medium term.
We must also remember that progress in public health depends on innovation.
Financing for TB research must at least double to successfully drive discovery of new tools, including vaccines.
To intensify vaccine development, and building on lessons from the pandemic, WHO plans to convene a high-level summit early next year.
This will support the roll out of the Global Strategy for TB research and innovation endorsed by our Member States.
And third, we urge all countries to integrate services for TB into primary health care as part of their journey towards universal health coverage.
The struggle to end TB is not just a struggle against a single disease.
In many ways, TB is a symptom of how our societies have failed marginalized communities.
It’s also the struggle to end poverty, inequity, unsafe housing, discrimination and stigma.
Ending TB is not a job for the Ministry of Health alone.
We need action – and greater accountability – from countries, partners, and civil society, across all sectors, to end TB.
A year from now, we will meet again for the second High-Level Meeting on TB, to take stock of progress and to re-energize commitments to end TB.
In the coming months, WHO will work with the offices of the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly to prepare for that meeting.
If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that with solidarity, determination, innovation and the equitable use of tools, we can overcome severe health threats.
Let's apply those lessons to tuberculosis. It is time to put a stop to this long-time killer.
Working together, we can end TB.
I thank you.