THE CALL TO ACTION ON TB
“We are indebted to many
organisations for their support, including the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, for helping raise the profile of this initiative. If elected
representatives from across the globe make their voice heard, we have a chance to secure the action that will finally beat TB.”
At the Summit we decided that a one-off initiative would not be sufficient and founded a Global TB Caucus – a network of parliamentarians spanning the world. We also drafted and launched a Declaration that articulates our vision for a world free from one of its oldest and deadliest diseases.
This Barcelona Declaration is open to any parliamentarian to sign. We have set ourselves the ambitious target of gathering support from representatives of 100 countries by December this year, when Minister Motsoaledi will host the second Global TB Summit in Cape Town. By then, the world will have agreed a new set of Development Goals which will shape the future of billions of people over the next fifteen years.
The creation of the Global TB Caucus has come at a critical time. TB still kills 1.5 million people a year and is increasingly resistant to our best drugs. A patient on treatment for drug-
resistant TB today has the same chance of survival as someone with untreated ebola. So we find ourselves at a crossroads: we can urgently scale up existing interventions and invest to develop new ones – a road that the WHO estimates could lead to the elimination of TB within a generation – or we can continue as we are and risk an explosion of drug-resistance that could undo all progress, even returning us to an era before antibiotics. The Millennium Development Goals provided a catalyst for change which has helped push back the TB epidemic. Now it is vital that TB is included in the new Sustainable Development Goals. I am urging parliamentary colleagues around the world to add their names in support of the Barcelona Declaration and, in doing so, to become part of our campaign to end TB. So far, 400 political representatives from 60 countries have added their names in support. We are indebted to many
Above: The Summit Opening with (left to right): Nick Herbert UK MP, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, South African Health Minister and Jose Castro, Executive Director of The Union (International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease).
organisations for their support, including the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, for helping raise the profile of this initiative. If elected representatives from across the globe make their voice heard, we have a chance to secure the action that will finally beat TB.
Commonwealth
Parliamentarians who are interested in signing the Barcelona Declaration on TB can visit www.
globaltbcaucus.org for further information and to add their name and legislature. See also
www.appg-tb.org.uk.
The Parliamentarian | 2015: Issue Three | 207
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104