Regional Strategic Roadmap for enhancing research and innovation towards ending tuberculosis in the WHO South-East Asia Region: 2024–2026., 2024

Globally, tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality. It was the second largest killer among infectious diseases in 2022. Despite being a curable and preventable disease, TB extracts an enormous human and societal toll. All Member States have committed to end TB by 2030, as part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). The corresponding End TB targets are 80% reduction in TB incidence rate and 90% reduction in the number of TB deaths, relative to 2015 and elimination of catastrophic costs due to the disease for affected families.

Ending TB requires a comprehensive strategy integrating medical, public health and social interventions, focused on the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of TB, while ensuring patient support during the process. WHO has formulated and keeps updating guidelines on various interventions required to implement the End TB Strategy, including those for medical approaches and for reduction of the TB burden, based on the available scientific evidence.  Several stakeholders are playing a pivotal role in implementing these guidelines and ensuring equitable access to prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for those affected by TB. Despite significant efforts, global progress towards ending TB has been slow due to insufficient resources, suboptimal tools, inadequate access to the services, lack of multisectoral action and inadequate attention to the  socioeconomic determinants of TB. Globally, an estimated US$ 22 billion per year is needed to finance the TB response. As of 2022, only US$ 5.8 billion was available, with US$ 1.1 billion of this coming from international donor funding. Progress received a further setback due to disruptions in TB services during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the current rate of progress, the target of reducing the global burden by 2030 as envisioned in the SDGs is unlikely to be met.  

Political commitment to end TB has steadily increased, as highlighted by the declarations in the second United Nations High-Level Meeting on the fight against TB, held in September 2023 at New York, and the South-East Asian Regional High-Level meetings. The most recent regional meeting was held in 2023 at Gandhinagar, Gujarat, which led to the Gandhinagar Declaration. These commitments stem from the recognition that TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, disproportionately affecting the poorest and most vulnerable populations.

“Research and innovation” is one of the three core pillars of the WHO End TB Strategy and is highly relevant for accelerating progress towards ending TB by understanding the epidemiology of TB better, developing new tools for prevention, diagnosis and treatment, and for optimal utilization of existing tools and resources. The United Nations High-Level meetings on TB in 2018 and 2023 have also endorsed the importance of research and innovation, reiterating the need for increased funding for TB research.