2nd Stop TB Partners' Forum, 4-5 December 2003, New Delhi

	Voices 2nd Stop TB Partners' Forum, 24-25-26 March 2004, New Delhi, India


	Content Index I am also a partner with you both as a person and Prime Minister of India - Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ex-Prime Minister, India The society can effectively treat a disease only when the stigma attached to it is removed - Sushma Swaraj, ex-Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare India There is simply no justification for 5500 TB deaths that happen each day - Praful Patel, Vice President, South Asia Region, The World Bank There are nine million reasons for being here today - LEE Jong-wook, Director-General, World Health Organization Consensus objectives
	I am also a partner with you both as a person and Prime Minister of India India is paying a very happy price for failures our earlier national tuberculosis control programme, which was marred by low case detection and non-adherence to treatment by patients. The country is now reaping rich dividends from success of DOTS programme under Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme. The programme, which covers 800 million people at present, has prevented 2.6 million new infections and saved half a million lives. We now know that half of TB deaths are due to smoking. So we need to strengthen our anti-tobacco campaign. The achievements of HIV/AIDS awareness drive in our country have been praiseworthy. A similar effort is needed to make people aware about tuberculosis. On the occasion of Second Stop TB Partners’ Forum I wish to assure you all that I am also a partner with you both as a person and Prime Minster of India. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ex-Prime Minister of India Top^ The society can effectively treat a disease only when the stigma attached to it is removed I remember the times when people refrained from admitting that a member of their family was suffering from TB. The word TB tantamounted to discrimination and the patient was treated as an outcast from the society. TB patients were sent to sanatoriums situated in remote areas. They were cut off and isolated from humanity. I am glad that this kind of thinking and treatment is now history. Our current strategy of DOTS has a phenomenal success rate and equally, the strategy has resulted in no discrimination against the TB patient. The society can effectively treat a disease only when the stigma attached to it is removed. The stigma of TB has disappeared. This brings patients to DOTS centers without the fears of rejection. Sushma Swaraj, Ex-Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare India Top^ There is simply no justification for 5500 TB deaths that happen each day We know that TB and poverty are intimately linked. Nothing is more powerful than listening to the tales of TB patients themselves; listening to accounts of their daily struggles for health and economic survival. Surveys in India, China, Bangladesh and Malawi show that without access to effective DOTS programmes, men, women and their families fall further into poverty while seeking care. The choice – the active choice- to increase financing for health systems and poverty reduction strategies is key. We must ensure budgeting for public health priorities, such as DOTS. And we must ensure that this increased financing increases TB cures among the poorest and most vulnerable. There is simply no justification for 5500 TB deaths that happen each day. Praful Patel, Vice President, South Asia Region, The World Bank Top^ There are nine million reasons for being here today Nine million people developed tuberculosis last year, and two million of them died. We are here to see what has been done and what must be done to control this disease that is causing so much suffering and loss of life. We have a global partnership to Stop TB. We have a strategy for achieving it, called the DOTS strategy. And we have global targets. During the last ten years, there has been great progress towards reaching those targets, but we have to do much more if we are to reach them. LEE Jong-wook, Director-General, World Health Organization Top^ Consensus objectives We, the delegates to the Second Stop TB Partners’ Forum in New Delhi, affirm our solemn commitment to pursue with all haste the following consensus objectives: Intensifying our efforts to attain global TB control targets-over the coming 20 months; Accelerating action to expand DOTS coverage, especially to those countries and populations that need it most; Expanding our outreach to include new partners such as private practitioners, NGOs, the private sector, those at risk of, or already living with HIV/AIDS and ultimately all of civil society, not just those directly affected now; and Mobilizing more resources, both in cash and kind, to facilitate our push towards the 2005 targets and beyond those towards the Millennium Development Goals of reducing TB prevalence and mortality by half by 2015. Important Links: New Delhi Pledge to Stop TB On-site reports from the Forum, prepared by a team of Health and Development Network Key Correspondents are available at http://eforums.healthdev.org/read/?forum=stop-tb Materials presented at the Forum are available at: http://www.stoptb.org/events/partners_forum/2004/materials.asp Top^