Statement by Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe on the occasion of the high-level regional dialogue in Europe and central Asia: Achieving the UN high-level meeting commitments on tuberculosis (TB), Tashkent, Uzbekistan
I would like to start by thanking our gracious hosts, the Government of Uzbekistan, and your excellency, the Acting Minister of Health, Mr Asilbek Khudayarov, as well as the National TB Programme of Uzbekistan, for ensuring TB doesn’t fall off the agenda. I would also like to thank the Stop TB Partnership and its Executive Director, Dr Lucica Ditiu, for her long-standing commitment to ending TB.
Friends, we are a long way from ending TB in the European Region, but there is hope on the horizon.
New evidence shows how a reduced 9-month treatment plan for multidrug-resistant TB [MDR-TB] has a treatment success rate of 83%, well above the current average success rate for the European Region of 57%. In the past, treatment for MDR-TB could take as long as 3 years. But with this new regimen, there are no injectables and far fewer pills to take, which means patients can be cared for in their communities, by their families and loved ones, and in some cases even keep working.
Uzbekistan has made great progress on TB thanks to the leadership of the Ministry of Health. Over the past decade, the country has enhanced its diagnosis, treatment and monitoring processes for TB. Success rates have improved from 84% in 2012 to 89% in 2021.
Yet 4 out of the 5 central Asian countries – including Uzbekistan – are among the top 30 high-burden countries for MDR-TB globally. Now armed with new evidence of improved outcomes on a shorter TB treatment regimen, we hope the region can radically improve the lives of TB patients in the coming months and years.
New breakthroughs in health are only possible with concerted investments into new diagnostics and treatments, which is precisely why I am convening the first-ever Central Asia International Health Investment Forum in Bishkek later this week. The 2-day event will help accelerate investments in health, because as we know, without health there is no economic growth or prosperity.