UN General Assembly tuberculosis targets: are we on track?

A series of assessment tools are being taken forward in high tuberculosis endemic countries.6 These will assist countries in transforming the tuberculosis response to be equitable, rights-based, gender-transformative, and people-centred to protect, advance, and advocate for gender equality and human rights-based health initiatives, change attitudes, combat stigma, improve tuberculosis knowledge and rights, raise awareness about available services, promote social accountability to ensure universal access to tuberculosis care, and support services and reach populations that are most at risk and underserved. WHO's revised guidelines on rapid molecular testing and on use of all oral MDR tuberculosis treatment regimens now provide hope for increasing treatment success rates.8,9 The target to treat 115 000 children for MDR tuberculosis between 2018 and 2022 cannot be assessed. Given this huge funding gap, it is crucial that increased funding for tuberculosis from traditional and non-traditional sources is obtained.11,12 The global plan for reaching the UN tuberculosis targets describes actions needed to increase resources for tuberculosis, including actions by governments of high-burden countries, donors, development banks, health insurance stakeholders, private sector, and innovative funding actors.12 A multisectoral accountability framework was developed by WHO in response to the UNGA Political Declaration on Tuberculosis that mandated review with provision of a progress report to the UNGAs of 2020 and 2023.