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UN Nations First Ever High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis: The Politeness Stops Here

Civil society doesn’t have the ability to say what needs to be said. The only ones who can get the message across effectively are those who don't want to die.

Every TB death is a stupid death. TB civil society is too civil. We are all TBpeople and we need to wake the f*ck up. We need to be outside the f*cking UN in New York with a wrecking ball.”
— Sharonann Lynch, MSF Access Campaign
AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS, July 26, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Heads of State will gather in New York on 26 September this year at the United Nations General Assembly first-ever high-level meeting on tuberculosis (TB) to accelerate efforts in ending TB and reach all affected people with prevention and care. The theme of the meeting is “United to end tuberculosis: an urgent global response to a global epidemic”.

Today at AIDS 2018 a new worldwide network of activists called TBpeople has been launched. The members have personal experience of/or have been affected directly by tuberculosis. The disease kills more people with HIV than any other opportunistic infection. Their objective is to be an effective voice in the battle against the disease. Board Member of TBpeople. Timur Abdullaev said; “Civil society doesn’t seem to have the ability to say what needs to be said. The only ones who can get the message across effectively are those who don’t want to die.”

Comparisons at the launch were made with the HIV community which rose up at the start of the AIDS pandemic and that have been instrumental, if not the cause of major medical, legal and social advances globally in addressing the virus since the 1980s. The proceedings of the launch of TBpeople were observed by Peter Staley, American HIV/AIDS-LGBT rights activist, known for his work with ACT UP and founding the Treatment Action Group (TAG). He is a primary figure in the Oscar-nominated documentary How to Survive a Plague.

Present at the launch were representatives from MSF’s Access Campaign, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Stop TB Partnership and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. They called for a more direct approach by affected communities and pledged their support prior to the UN High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis.

Sharonann Lynch of MSF’s Access Campaign said; “We can do more to support and empower people with TB. We’ve had a cure for TB for some time and still people are dying from it. Every TB death is a stupid death. TB civil society is too civil. We are all TBpeople and we need to wake the f*ck up. We need to be outside the f*cking UN in New York with a wrecking ball.”

Kate Thompson, Head of Community, Rights and Gender (CRG) at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), a leader in global health and development with over 30 years of AIDS activism said; “This is exciting, it is happening. This is the start of something much bigger and broader.”

Lasha Goguadze of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said; “Our agenda is fully aligned with the TB community promoting equity, rights and social care.”

The high-level meeting on TB is an unprecedented step forward by governments and all partners engaged in the fight against TB. It follows on from a very successful Ministerial Conference on Ending TB in Moscow on 16-17 November, 2017 which resulted in high-level commitments from Ministers and other leaders from 120 countries to accelerate progress to end TB.

The high-level meeting should result in an ambitious Political Declaration on TB endorsed by Heads of State that will strengthen action and investments for the end TB response, potentially saving millions of lives.

Timur Abdullaev
TBpeople
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