WHO's 'End TB Strategy' shaping up

WHO has called for global solidarity and action in a bid to put TB infection to an end.

On May 19, 2014, the 67th World Health Assembly (WHA) adopted WHO's "Global strategy and targets for tuberculosis prevention, care and control after 2015". This post-2015 global tuberculosis strategy, labeled the End TB Strategy, was shaped during the past 2 years.

A wide range of stakeholders-from ministries of health and national tuberculosis programmes to technical and scientific institutions, financial and development partners, civil society and health activists, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector-contributed to its development. The strategy has a vision of making the world free of tuberculosis, with zero deaths, disease, and suffering due to the disease.

In this Viewpoint, Dr Mukund Uplekar from the World Health Organization, and colleagues, outline how achievements in TB control over the past two decades can provide the basis for further progress, and how ending the tuberculosis epidemic is an important health and development goal, achievable in the foreseeable future. This goal can be realised over the next two decades, the authors assert, through optimizing implementation of current tools and approaches, addressing social determinants of TB through universal health coverage and social protection, and investing in research and development adequately to secure and employ new tools of elimination.

The study is published in The Lancet.