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With many thanks to the
World Bank, hosting this event

Action since the Amsterdam Declaration to Stop Tuberculosis

The Ministerial Conference on Tuberculosis and Sustainable Development was held in Amsterdam in March 2000. High-burden countries pledged their commitment, through the Amsterdam Declaration, to reach the global targets for tuberculosis control by 2005. They called on the international community to assist the development of national DOTS expansion plans, to establish new initiatives to increase access to drugs, to accelerate research to develop new tuberculosis drugs, diagnostics and vaccines, and to establish a global fund for tuberculosis.

The Ministerial Conference has been followed by rapid progress in meeting these objectives, namely:

• A Global DOTS Expansion Plan has been developed by countries and partners.

• Several countries have established partnerships to increase coordination and efficiency of support for control programmes.

• A Global TB Drug Facility has been developed and is delivering tuberculosis drugs.

• A Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Drug Development has been established.

• High-level international efforts to mobilize new resources and financing mechanisms for the control of tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria already exist.

• The global partnership to Stop TB has expanded and now involves over 100 partner organizations.

Despite these important steps forward over the last year, the global tuberculosis situation continues to worsen. More people die from tuberculosis than ever before, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is fuelling a tuberculosis epidemic on that continent that increases 10% per year. This human tragedy demands coherent plans of action to address both epidemics.

Our work towards a global plan for stopping TB throughout the world will help us to coordinate and focus our efforts. The Stop TB Partnership is working with UNAIDS and other partners to ensure that efforts to both confront HIV/AIDS and stop TB are synergistic, and that both highlight the key strategies required to prevent and treat concurrent disease in high-prevalence countries. Addressing this crisis depends on a commitment from partners to mobilize a massive new investment in controlling TB and other infectious diseases in order to identify optimal ways of accelerating responses.