WHO South-East Asia regional progress towards the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting targets and 2025 milestones towards ending TB: challenges and opportunities

At the UN High-Level Meeting (UNHLM) on Tuberculosis held at New York in September2018, Member States committed to intensified efforts and investments towards reaching the Sustainable Development Goals and elimination targets for TB by the 2030 deadline. The apportioned coverage targets for TB in the South-East Asia Region to be achieved between 2018 to 2022 include: ~18 million TB patients to be diagnosed and treated, including ~1.5 million children with TB; over half a million drug-resistant TB patients to be successfully treated; and nearly 11 million people to be provided TB preventive treatment. Member States would be expected to report on the progress against these commitments during the plannedUN High-Level Meeting on TB in 2023.SE Asia Region Member States have been making steady, albeit slow, progress towards achieving the targets. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a further and tangible setback and reversed much of the progress made towards ending TB, directly because of reduced case notifications and indirectly by exacerbating the social determinants of the disease such as poverty, inequity and undernutrition.Urgent planning is needed in the Region for catching up on the ground lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic and for commensurate investments for a comprehensive package thatincludes prevention, screening and rapid diagnosis, use of newer and shorter treatment regimens, and patient support including rehabilitative and palliative care. While a setback has been received to the ongoing progress benchmarks, substantial gains in the quest to end TBare still possible with multipronged action through multistakeholder engagement and a whole of-society approach.The attached Working Paper was presented to the High-Level Preparatory Meeting for its review and recommendations. The HLP Meeting reviewed it and made the following recommendations that are being presented to the Seventy-fifth Session of the Regional Committee for its consideration:Actions by Member States(1) Plan urgently to regain the ground lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic to find missing TB patients and provide people-centred services supported by social protection.(2) Establish an empowered country initiative led by the highest possible political levels of authority that monitors progress in reaching the UNHLM’s targets and beyond in Member States using a multi-sectoral accountability framework.(3) Forge greater South–South collaboration on research, innovation and roll-out of new tools, technologies and treatment regimens.(4) Increase investments in TB programmes to bridge the annual funding gap of nearly US$ 1.5 billion, specifically through domestic sources and multisectoralcollaboration.Actions by WHO(1) Support Member States in prioritization of interventions and resourcemobilization for ending TB.(2) Support Member States with convening stakeholders including communities for a synergized response on TB.(3) Provide a platform among Member States for sharing of best practices that also feeds into the technical strategic guidance towards ending TB.This Working Paper, an advocacy document titled ’Act Now: End TB in the South-East Asia Region’ and the HLP Meeting recommendations are submitted to the Seventy-fifthSession of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia for its consideration.