Ending the Global Tuberculosis Epidemic by 2030 - The Moscow Declaration and achieving a Major Translational Change in Delivery of TB Healthcare.

According to the latest WHO Annual Global TB Report (WHO, 2017a), Tuberculosis (TB) remains the world’s top infectious diseases cause of death, being responsible for an estimated 1.674.000 deaths worldwide in 2016. Alarmingly, there were 600.000 cases of rifampicin-resistant TB of which 490.000 had multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Less than 50% of these patients survive after receiving currently recommended WHO treatment regimens, illustrating the dire state of current global TB control efforts. The first WHO Global Ministerial Conference “Ending Tuberculosis in the Sustainable Development Era: A Multisectoral Response”, was held in Moscow, the Russian Federation, on 17th November 2017. Ministers from 75 countries agreed on the “Moscow Declaration” (WHO, 2017d) committing to urgent action to fulfill the WHO “End Tuberculosis” strategy by 2030 (WHO, 2017b). It also commits to increasing multisectoral action, tracking progress, and ensuring accountability. The Moscow declaration will inform the first UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on TB to be held in New York in September 2018 to generate further commitments from member states. Key sentences in the declaration read: “Universal health coverage, sustainable financing for multisectoral action, rapid scale up of innovative approaches and tools, and discovery of new and better tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB will be fundamental to transform the fight. We also recognize the urgent need for committing immediate, intensified, innovative and multisectoral actions to rapidly accelerate progress in both research and implementation”.