NEW YORK, 3 April 2009: Ministers from the 27 countries with the highest burden of multi-drug resistant and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) have jointly endorsed a Call for Action on TB control and care to urgently address this alarming threat.
The meeting in Beijing, China, on 1-3 April 2009, was organized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The two main aims of the meeting were to build consensus and political commitment globally and in countries with high levels of M/XDR-TB, and to act immediately to scale up the prevention and management of drug resistant tuberculosis. This will include developing five year national strategic plans, embedded within national tb and health sector plans.
The Call for Action, endorsed on the first day, recognizes the serious threat that this type of tb poses to people living with hiv and draws attention to the actions required to scale-up M/XDR-TB prevention, control and care.
Countries are asked to identify the groups most vulnerable to, and at risk of, drug resistant tb and its impact, including people living with the virus, drug users, prisoners, migrant populations and other marginalized groups and to ensure that services to prevent and treat M/XDR-TB are targeted to meet their needs.
Among the recommendations was a call for governments and partners to strengthen efforts to mobilize more funding to finance care and control of the diseases and increase investments in the research and development of new tb diagnostics, medicines and vaccines effective in people living with hiv.
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