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UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on TB 2018

Heads of State gathered in New York on 26 September 2018 at the United Nations General Assembly first-ever high-level meeting on tuberculosis (TB) to accelerate efforts to end TB and reach all affected people with prevention and care. The meeting – United to end tuberculosis: an urgent global response to a global epidemic – was a tremendous and unprecedented step forward by governments and all partners engaged in the fight against TB. It followed on from a successful Ministerial Conference on Ending TB in Moscow last year which resulted in high-level commitments from Ministers and other leaders from 120 countries to accelerate progress in ending TB.

FIND was involved in two events that took place on the sidelines of the high-level meeting:

Leave no one behind: scaling up integrated people-centred TB/HIV care towards universal health coverage

Affected communities, multilateral organizations, government representatives and other key stakeholders met to discuss the current challenges, gaps and opportunities that will translate political commitments to end the TB and HIV epidemics into reality – and how this must be a shared endeavour. FIND co-hosted the meeting, and our CEO, Catharina Boehme, was on the expert panel to talk about the important role diagnostics play in the fight against this disease.

The live-streamed event also featured talks by people including Dr Tedos Ghebreyesus (WHO), Michel Sidibé (UNAIDS) and Carol Nawina Nyirenda (CITAMPlus), Peter Sands (Global Fund), Ambassador Deborah Birx (PEPFAR) and Dr Eric Goosby (UN Special Envoy on TB).

Accelerating global TB response through technical innovation

This panel explored effective ways to apply groundbreaking innovations to the frontlines of the battle against TB. FIND Head of TB, Claudia Denkinger, spoke at this event and later represented several product development and delivery partnerships (1:25:10 to 1:27:30) during the multi-stakeholder panel.