September 2001, issue of the Stop TB Communiqué

STOP TB COMMUNIQUE

Issue 13, September 2001

Despite recent international events, the Stop TB Partners' Forum and all other Stop TB Partnership events and activities will continue without disruption. Security announcements and any changes to the schedule of business will be notified to partners immediately and simultaneously posted on the Stop TB website www.stoptb.org.

The First Stop TB Partners' Forum—"50/50: Towards a TB-free future"—celebrates 50 years of progress in the treatment of TB and looks forward 50 months, highlighting the fact that there are only 50 months remaining to reach the global targets for TB control for 2005. These targets are to treat successfully 85% of detected sputum smear-positive cases of TB and to detect 70% of such cases. Partners in the global movement to Stop TB are engaging leaders in development and civil society, including ministerial delegations from countries with the highest burden of TB, to attend this meeting. To date, delegations of 19 high-burden countries and about 50 partners have confirmed their participation.

The Stop TB Partners' Forum, which will be hosted by the World Bank at their headquarters in Washington, DC from 22 to 23 October 2001, has five objectives: (i) to report on progress since the Amsterdam Conference on Tuberculosis and Sustainable Development (March 2000) /stop_tb_initiative/amsterdam_conference/default.asp; (ii) to further accelerate efforts to operationalize the Amsterdam Declaration to Stop TB /stop_tb_initiative/amsterdam_conference/default.asp#declaration; (iii) to address the urgent issue of TB and HIV/AIDS /wg/TB_HIV/; (iv) to launch the Global Plan to Stop TB; and (v) formally to endorse the supporting mechanisms for the Stop TB partnership. Expected outcomes include consensus on the way forward for the global partnership; reinforced commitment to implement the Amsterdam Declaration to Stop TB in order to reach global targets for TB control by 2005; and strengthened partnership activities to stop TB.

Four key background documents are in production for the Forum: "50:50 or The Eleventh Hour: countdown to a TB-free future"; "How to stop TB in people living with HIV/AIDS"; "Global Plan to Stop TB"; and the "Washington commitment to Stop TB".

A pack containing information materials on registration and joining instructions will be sent to participants shortly. The Stop TB Partners' Forum webpage continues to announce online the latest information on preparations for the Forum, including status on participation, speakers and keynote presentations, and highlights of the interactive discussion forum.

Further information is available from the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat at mailto:stoptbinfo@who.int.

• Global TB Drug Facility (GDF) /GDF/

First round applications. Orders have been placed for all successful first round country applications. Shipments to countries will take place from October 2001.

Second round applications. The Stop TB Partnership Secretariat is actively pursuing additional information from countries currently still under consideration necessary for a final decision to be made on their applications by the Technical Review Committee (TRC). The Secretariat is also finalizing the upcoming GDF country visits. Country missions will take place in DR Congo, Djibouti, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, Togo, and Uganda. These visits will be concluded by the end of October. Drug orders have been placed with the procurement agent for countries that were accepted and do not require country visits and the GDF has added the 4FDC to its list of products to be supplied. Two second round countries will receive this product.

The GDF website /GDF/ will be launched later this month, as will the first of a quarterly GDF newsletter.

Further information is available from the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat at mailto:stoptbinfo@who.int and from gdf@who.int

• Stop TB Coordinating Board

A meeting of the Coordinating Board will follow the Partners' Forum on 24 October. A Working Committee of the Board is supporting the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat with preparations for Board meetings and related background documents. A teleconference of the (interim) Coordinating Board Working Committee will take place today, Thursday 27 September, to consider the following objectives: selection criteria for the chair and vice-chair and additional posts to support the Board; agreement on next steps for completion of the Resource Mobilization Plan for Stop TB; finalization of the Memorandum of Understanding for the Global TB Drug Facility (GDF); a contingency plan for the Stop TB Partners' Forum and the Coordinating Board; endorsement of the agenda for the Stop TB Coordinating Board meeting on 24 October; agreement on process for preparations for World TB Day 2002.

Further information is available from the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat at mailto:stoptbinfo@who.int.

A big "thank you" to all the health and community care workers, doctors, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and others with a general interest in TB for your recent entries. Together, Stop TB and the IUATLD http://www.iuatld.org/ received over 45 entries containing over 130 suggested themes. Responses came from all around the world: Brazil, Canada, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, and the United States, among others.

Stop TB will soon convene a panel to review all entries submitted. The winning theme will be announced on the eve of the Partners' Forum, which is scheduled to take place on 22-23 October.

• Staff secondments

The Stop TB Partnership Secretariat is pleased to announce that
Dr Ger Steenbergen, Regional Health Advisor (East Africa Region) for the Ministry of Development Cooperation (DGIS) of the Government of the Netherlands and Mr Yuta Uchiyama from the Japan Anti-TB Association http://www.jata.or.jp/ will shortly join us to take forward the work of the global partnership movement to Stop TB. Based at TBP headquarters at WHO in Geneva, Dr Steenbergen and Mr Uchiyama will undertake secondments for two years and six months, respectively.

Further information is available from the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat at mailto:stoptbinfo@who.int.

• WORKING GROUPS /wg/default.asp

DOTS-Plus for MDR-TB /wg/DOTS_Plus/

The Green Light Committee (GLC) conducted a monitoring visit to Tomsk Oblast in the Russian Federation. This project has now been approved for expansion to treat 630 patients in three stages. The World Health Organization (WHO) also conducted visits to Costa Rica and South Africa to explore the possibilities of having each country benefit from concessionally priced second-line drugs. Currently, both countries are managing multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB) cases. The report from the January meeting of the Working Group on DOTS-Plus for MDR-TB has been printed and is available upon request from WHO.

Global Working Group on TB among HIV-infected people /wg/TB_HIV/

The Scientific Panel of the Global Working Group on TB among HIV-infected people met in Geneva on 12–13 September 2001. The key objective of the meeting was to discuss and elaborate the components of the guidelines for establishing collaborative TB and HIV programme activities in the field. There is a need to examine the lessons learned from recent experience of collaborative TB and HIV programme activities in order to guide phased implementation of these activities more widely. The meeting marked the beginning of effective collaboration between the TB and HIV communities, which will be translated into the development of a final version of the guidelines for establishing phased implementation of collaborative TB and HIV programme activities by early 2002.

Global Alliance for TB Drug Research & Development http://www.tballiance.org/home.cfm

As the lead agency of the New Drugs Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership, the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development helped establish a core group to coach the development of the Working Group Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan was submitted to the Stop TB Partnership for inclusion in the Global Plan to Stop TB. The next meeting of the Core Group is scheduled for early November 2001 in Paris. For more information, visit www.tballiance/stoptb

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development will publish next week its full report on the "Economics of TB drug development", a rigorous, authoritative source of information on the epidemiology of tuberculosis, potential market for new anti-TB drugs, costs of drug development, the potential return on investment, and options for funding and conducting drug development. Copies of the report are available upon request from info@tballiance.org.