Forty-three international advocates—including people living with TB and HIV—issued the following “Demand for Action on TB and HIV.” The declaration, a collaborative effort by the participants attending the Public Health Watch Partners’ Meeting in New York, will be submitted to the WHO, UNAIDS, and other policymaking bodies, to advocate for urgent and coordinated action to address the dual TB and HIV epidemics.
Demand for Action on TB and HIV
We, the undersigned, are advocates, researchers, and people living with TB and HIV from all regions of the world gathered to mobilize an urgent response to the joint epidemics of TB and HIV.
We collectively express our outrage at the epidemic of XDR-TB, generated by the continued failure of governments and international actors to deliver basic quality TB and HIV services.
The counter-productive separation of TB and HIV programming is undermining our ability to address these diseases and must come to an end. The global statistics are unacceptable—40 million people living with HIV, two billion infected with tuberculosis, and at least 13 million co-infected with TB and HIV. Yet, standard TB is curable even in people living with HIV.
We must take immediate action to guarantee universal access to integrated TB and HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support.
We demand that national governments, global health and development agencies,donors, and civil society:
- Make immediate and visible political commitments to halt the spread of XDR-TB;
- Provide the US$650 million urgently needed in 2007 for an immediate response to control MDR-TB (multi-drug resistant TB) and XDR-TB and an additional $138 million in 2007 to accelerate the development of appropriate drugs and diagnostics;
- Significantly increase investment in basic TB control programs and primary health care as the key to preventing the further development and spread of drug-resistant TB and dedicate considerable additional resources to fill the long-term global financing gaps for TB and HIV;
- Deliver TB and HIV services in the context of fully functioning primary health care systems to ensure cases are detected, prevention is available and treatment accessible and sustained;
- Invest substantial additional resources in accelerated research and development on new diagnostic, prevention and treatment technologies for TB and HIV; and
- Reach the most vulnerable populations with TB and HIV services and redress the social injustices that fuel these dual epidemics and XDR-TB.
People living with TB and HIV have a crucial role to play as advocates, providers, and partners in designing effective responses to these preventable and treatable diseases.
Glen Cove, New York, March 7, 2007
Olayide Akanni, Journalists Against AIDS, Nigeria
Nazneen Akhter, HIV/AIDS & STD Alliance, Bangladesh
Andriy Bega, International Centre for Policy Studies, Ukraine
Emily Bell, Open Society Institute, United States
Roxana Bonnell, Open Society Institute, United States
Arachu Castro, Harvard Medical School, United States
Lucy Chelimo Chesire, tbACTION, Kenya
Helena Choi, Open Society Institute, United States
Yuliya Chorna, Salvation, Ukraine
Afsan Chowdhury, BRAC, Bangladesh
Jonathan Cohen, Open Society Institute, United States
Chris Collins, AIDS activist, United States
Daouda Diouf, ENDA Santé, Senegal
Claudio Galvez-Kovacic, SOIS Institute, Brazil
Françoise Girard, Open Society Institute, United States
Tamara Gvaramadze, Georgian Plus Group, Georgia
Ayesha Hasan, Open Society Institute, Pakistan
Zoe Hudson, Open Society Institute, United States
Eleonora Jimenez, Open Society Institute, United States
Bobby John, Center for Sustainable Health and Development / Global Health Advocates, India
Ronald Kayanja, Panos Global AIDS Programme, Zambia
Jacob Kayombo, VUKA Tanzania, Tanzania
Oanh Thi Hai Khuat, Institute for Social Development Studies, Vietnam
Jim Kim, François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, United States
Shannon Kowalski-Morton, Open Society Institute, United States
Simon Leopold Lobo, Misbah, India
Jamillah Mwanjisi, African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation, Tanzania
Manisha Nayi, Open Society Institute, United States
Alessandra Nilo, Gestos, Brazil
Carol Nawina Nyirenda, Treatment Advocacy & Literacy Campaign, Zambia
Miguel Orozco, National Independent University of Nicaragua, Nicaragua
Nelson Juma Otwoma, Multiface Development and Research Centre, Kenya
Laura Gabriela Pedraza-Farina, Harvard Law School, United States
Sue Perez, RESULTS Educational Fund, United States
Nina Schwalbe, United States
Shona Schonning, Community of People Living with HIV, Russia
Sara Simon, CARE International, Belgium
Konjengbam Birjit Singh, India
Aiste Slobokaite, Open Society Institute, Lithuania
Amara Soonthorndhada, Mahidol University, Thailand
Ezio Tavora dos Santos Filho, TB/HIV Activist, Brazil
Tamari Trapaidze, Welfare Foundation, Georgia
Pervaiz Tufail, TB/HIV Activist, Pakistan