Updated on 19 March 2013
Dr Chan and Dr Dybul spoke to the media in Geneva in advance of World TB Day on March 24, which commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch discovered the mycobacterium that causes tuberculosis.
While the Millennium Development Goal of turning around the TB epidemic has already been met, the two percent decline in the number of people falling ill with TB each year remains too slow. Two regions - Africa and Europe - are not on track to achieve the global target of halving the TB death rate between 1990 and 2015. In 2011, 1.4 million people died due to TB, with the greatest per capita death rate in Africa. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) presents a major threat, with an estimated 630,000 people ill worldwide with this form of TB today.
WHO worked with the Global Fund and the Stop TB Partnership to support selected high TB burden countries in reviewing their priorities for the next three years and estimating available funding and gaps. Estimates have been made for 118 countries eligible for Global Fund support. Of the US$ 1.6 billion gap in donor financing, almost 60 percent is for WHO's Africa region.
In the 118 countries, there are four priority areas for domestic and international investment to drive down deaths, alleviate suffering, cut transmission and contain spread of drug resistance.
For the core areas of expanded diagnosis and effective treatment for drug-susceptible TB (which will prevent MDR-TB), a total of $2.6 billion is needed each year for the 2014-16 period. For 2011, funding of about $2 billion was available. In low-income countries, especially in Africa, this is the largest area for increased financing.