International Community, U.K. Should Invest In Global Fund To Help End TB

The Guardian: TB kills three people every minute — the world must wake up to this pandemic
Jessica Potter, research fellow at the Centre for Primary Care and Public Health at the Blizzard Institute at Queen Mary University of London

“…The global TB pandemic has been fueled by disregard: political will is limited; investment in diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines is poor; and the HIV epidemic played its role with sufferers around 27 times more likely to get TB. The disease, and particularly MDR-TB, thrives on fractured and underfunded health systems. TB generates global losses of $12bn annually and we need $6.4bn to end this epidemic. I am no economist but where we should spend our money seems clear to me. … For TB, the Global Fund provides over 75 percent of all international finance. Without it, there would not be an international response to the world’s leading infectious killer. … This month, Canada will host the 5th Global Fund replenishment conference. … [T]he U.K. and Germany are yet to donate. There is a moral imperative and a strong economic case for doing so, and yet any chance of success is threatened by insufficient funding, public ambivalence, and nationalist politics. … For now, we wait with bated breath to discover whether the U.K. government will live up to its responsibilities…” (9/5).

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