Other news relating to the Global Fund Partnership
Author:
Adèle Sulcas
Article Type:Article Number: 6
WHO Global TB Report 2019, MSF’s ‘DR-TB Drugs Under the Microscope’, African Constituency Bureau’s consultative meeting
ABSTRACT This ‘Of Interest’ focuses on the just-released WHO Global TB report 2019, MSF’s new report on drugs for drug-resistant TB, and the Africa Constituency Bureau consultative meeting in Addis Ababa on 22-23 October, in preparation for the Global Fund’s 42nd Board Meeting.
Following are three introductory summaries of recent developments related to AIDS, TB and malaria, and the Global Fund. Links to original sources of the news follow each item.
WHO Global TB Report 2019
The latest global TB report from WHO gives both encouraging and sobering news about the epidemic. It states that 58 million lives were saved between 2000 and 2018 by global efforts to end TB, but that 10 million people fell ill with TB in 2018, and 1.5 million died of TB in 2018 alone. In addition, almost half a million people (484,000) people fell ill with drug-resistant TB in 2018. TB is the top cause of death from an infectious disease, and remains of the the top 10 causes of death overall, worldwide. In addition to showing trends in TB incidence and mortality, data on case detection and treatment results for TB, multidrug-resistant TB, TB/HIV, TB prevention, and information related to universal health coverage and financing, the Global Report outlines progress made towards the targets set at the United Nations General Assembly’s first high-level meeting on TB, held in 2018.
See the full WHO Global TB Report 2019…
See the Global Fund’s news release on upturn in finding ‘missing TB people’…
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Drugs for drug-resistant TB ‘under the microscope’
Médecins sans Frontières has just released the 6th edition of DR-TB Drugs Under the Microscope: 5 Urgent Actions to Improve DR-TB Treatment, a report that provides an overview of the landscape of optimal treatment for drug-resistant (DR) TB. It also outlines barriers to accessing affordable treatment, and provides recommendations for how DR-TB treatment can be improved on a global scale. This is timely, especially in light of the WHO Global TB Report 2019’s findings that in 2018, only 39% of people with multi-drug-resistant/really resistant TB (MDR/RR-TB) were diagnosed, and only 1 in 3 were started on treatment. The MSF report recommends five urgent actions to improve access to treatment and treatment outcomes:
- Countries to make a timely switch to the newly recommended all-oral drug regimens (prioritising bedaquiline)
- Johnson and Johnson, the manufacturers of bedaquiline, to reduce the price of bedaquiline to no more than $1 a day
- Countries to overcome restrictive patents and exclusive licensing of key TB drugs
- Countries to adopt effective national drug procurement policies in order to reduce risk to quality, affordability, and access to critical TB medicines
- Governments to support public health-driven research and development, and better governance of new medical tools to ensure affordable and sustainable access.
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African Constituency Bureau for the Global Fund meets Oct 22-23 in Addis Ababa
The annual Africa Consultative Meeting of the African Constituency Bureau is being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 22-23, to discuss a range of Global Fund policy-related issues in advance of the Global Fund’s 42nd Board meeting in Geneva, on November 14-15. The Consultative Meeting is an opportunity for the 46 countries represented by the two African constituencies on the Global Fund Board (Eastern and Southern Africa, and Western and Central Africa) to share their views and recommendations with each other, on matters relating to Global Fund policy.
This meeting focuses on issues including: CCM evolution, the Market Shaping Mid-term Review, the WCA OIG Advisory report, the future extension of and procurement strategy by Wambo.org, Strategic Performance reporting mid-2019. On each of these issues, the meeting agenda sets out key results or findings, lessons or recommendations, “Africa’s position”, and questions to be further discussed in the group.
See the Africa Constituency Bureau’s website…
