India signs WHO’s Call To End TB by 2030 in South East Asian region

India along with other countries in the South East Asian Region have signed World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Call To end Tuberculosis (TB) by 2030 in the region.
It was signed by Health ministers from countries in WHO South-East Asia Region (WHO SEARO) during two-day ministerial meeting towards ending TB in the region held in New Delhi. 

Key Facts

• Call To End TB by 2030 initiative also stresses on increasing government and partner budgetary allocations to enable national TB plans to be fully funded.
• WHO SEARO countries have pledged to scale-up efforts and implement adequately funded, innovative, multi-sectoral and comprehensive measures to achieve the global target to end the disease by 2030.
• They also agreed to set up of a ‘regional innovation to implementation fund’ for accelerated sharing of knowledge, intellectual resources and innovations to reach out and treat all cases.
• The WHO global targets seek to reduce TB mortality by 90% and incidence by 80% by 2030.

Background

WHO South East Asian Region bears half of the global tuberculosis burden. Six of the region’s countries Bangladesh, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand are among the 30 high TB burden nations globally. In 2015, TB caused estimated 4.74 million new TB cases were reported in the region and nearly 8,00,000 deaths. India represents the single highest number of TB cases in the world reporting 2.8 million new TB cases annually and nearly half a million deaths due to the disease.
 Note: WHO’s South-East Asia Region comprises Bhutan, Bangladesh, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. 
Tuberculosis is an infectious, airborne disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It mainly affects the lungs. It can be transmitted from person to person through the air when people with TB cough, sneeze, laugh or speak, spit, propelling the germs into the atmosphere.

Month: Current Affairs - March, 2017