Giving Compass' Take:

• Experts warn that without additional awareness and research solutions WHO’s End TB Strategy will fall short of its goals.  

• How can philanthropy help to fill the research gaps for TB? Why does this disease suffer from a lack of awareness? 

• Find out what strategies are in place to make 2018 the years of TB action.

Lack of awareness and research solutions on eradicating the deadly, airborne disease tuberculosis, is pushing global reduction targets out of reach, experts warned in New York in May.

While TB deaths fell globally by 37 percent between 2000 and 2016, the bacterial disease remains one of the top 10 causes of deaths worldwide, responsible for 1.7 million lost lives in 2016.

“Progress is too slow. Increasingly, the rate of the number of resistant TB cases is a challenge, along with gaps in investment and research,” Tereza Kasaeva, director of the global tuberculosis program at the World Health Organization, explained to Devex.

In spite of 53 million saved lives [between 2000 and 2016], in spite of a lot of activities, there are not enough outcomes between stakeholders and partners. We see our role revising the situation, to first of all, increase coordination.

WHO’s End TB Strategy aims for a 90 percent decrease in TB deaths by 2030.

Gaps in awareness, insufficient investment in research and development, and social stigma all contribute to the persistent problem of TB, first recognized in the late 1800s.

Read the full article about ending TB by Amy Lieberman at Devex International Development.