The Joint Initiative

To urgently translate commitments into action, WHO, the Stop TB Partnership and The Global Fund have launched a new joint initiative called “FIND. TREAT. All. #ENDTB”.

The initiative calls for actions to rapidly close gaps and scale up access to care.
In 2016, 10.4 million people fell ill with TB, of these, only 6.3 million people with TB were officially notified to national authorities and reported to WHO. This means more than 4 million people with TB were missed by official case notification systems. The reasons are manifold including: poor access to health services, weak health systems without capacity to provide timely diagnosis; insufficient community engagement and insufficient linkages with health providers who treat people but fail to report to national authorities. For people with drug-resistant TB (DR-TB), the situation is worse with only one in five people (130 000 people) with DR-TB being reported as diagnosed and treated.

The Find. Treat. All. initiative calls on country leaders, stakeholders and partners to join WHO, the Stop TB Partnership, and the Global Fund to increase the number of people reported as diagnosed and treated. It aims to diagnose treat and report 40 million people with TB, including 3.5 million children and 1.5 million people with DR-TB. It also calls for reaching at least 30 million people with TB preventive services between 2018 and 2022. Achieving these targets will contribute to fulfilling the commitments for reduction in TB incidence and deaths, set forth in the End TB Strategy, the Stop TB Global Plan to End TB, SDGs and the “triple billion ” target for 2023 of the 13th GPW.

Reaching the 40 million target will require finding all the missing people with TB, as well as maintaining progress in the TB response. This includes action to close gaps in reaching those missed by care, as well as maintaining gains already made in countries in diagnosing and treating people with TB.

While the initiative will cover all countries, focused action will be prioritized in at least the 30 highest TB burden countries (HBCs) between 2018 and 2022, as well as the top countries with highest burden of missing people with TB that are not on the HBC list. Priority countries being supported by donors such as the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Global Fund, KNCV, etc. will also be included.

The initiative builds upon recent innovative efforts, including the Global Fund, WHO and Stop TB Partnership Strategic Initiative on finding the missing people with TB, the U.S. Government Global TB Strategy and the National Action Plan for Combating MDR-TB, Stop TB/ TB REACH, the Zero TB Initiative and others. The Strategic Initiative of 13 high TB burden countries with The Global Fund, WHO and Stop TB Partnership, under the Catalytic Investment of The Global Fund and the related Strategic Initiative on data, targets reaching an additional 1.5 million missing people with TB by 2019.

The Find. Treat. All. Initiative also complements other comprehensive interventions being undertaken by countries in scaling up access and prevention. These include: expanding access to preventive treatment, addressing determinants of TB, alleviating the financial impact of the diseases, boosting community engagement, collaborating in health systems strengthening, and pursuing research and innovation.