Stop TB Partnership

In news : The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan has been appointed as the Chairman of the international body Stop TB Partnership Board. 

Key updates 

• The Union Minister was appointed in recognition of  his outstanding contribution to the movement to eradicate Tuberculosis from India by 2025.
• He will serve a three year term, commencing from July this year.

About the Stop TB Partnership

• Formation: 2001
• It is  leading the way to a world without tuberculosis (TB), a disease that is curable but still kills three people every minute. 
• Vision: TB-free world
• Mission: 
  • To ensure that every TB patient has access to effective diagnosis, treatment and cure.
  • To stop transmission of TB.
  • To reduce the inequitable social and economic toll of TB.
  • To develop and implement new preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic tools and strategies to stop TB
• Partners: It has around 1700 partners in more than 100 countries, they include international and technical organizations, government programmes, research and funding agencies, foundations, NGOs, civil society and community groups and the private sector.
• The organization was conceived following the meeting of the First Session of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Tuberculosis Epidemic held in London in March 1998. 
• In its inaugural year itself, the Stop TB Partnership through the Amsterdam Declaration gave a call for collaborative action from ministerial delegations from 20 countries that bear the highest burden of TB.

Management & Operation: 

• Stop TB Partnership operates through a secretariat hosted by UNOPS in Geneva, Switzerland and seven working groups whose role is to accelerate progress on access to TB diagnosis and treatment; research and development for new TB diagnostics, drugs and vaccines; and tackling drug resistant- and HIV-associated TB. 
• The secretariat is governed by a Board that sets strategic direction for the global fight against TB

Its targets are:

• By 2030: End the tuberculosis epidemic as envisaged under the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the WHO End TB Strategy.
• The 90-(90)-90 targets: Stop TB Partnership’s Global Plan to End TB 2016-2020 sets out three ambitious new targets. 
• By 2020, at least 90% of all people with TB should be reached and placed on appropriate therapy. As a part of this approach, at least 90% of the most vulnerable, underserved and at-risk populations, should be reached. 
• The third 90 aims to achieve a treatment success of at least 90%. This means that of all people diagnosed with all forms of TB, 90% should be treated successfully.