Stop TB Canada e-News
Issue #2
October to December, 2005


Welcome to Stop TB Canada’s second e-Newsletter.  Stop TB Canada e-News serves as a quarterly communication forum between Stop TB Canada members and a source of information for the wider international health community on Stop TB activities in Canada and on international TB projects managed or supported by Canadian organizations.

Stop TB Canada was formed in February 2001 to support Canada in fulfilling its commitment to the G-8 Okinawa 2000 targets to reduce the global burden of TB by 50 percent by 2010. For more information on Stop TB Canada see the last section of this e-News.

In this issue


Draft Global Plan to Stop TB (2006-2015) now available for comments
September 26, 2005

The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis is an assessment of the activities and resources needed to expand and improve the globally recommended strategy for TB control. The First Global Plan to Stop TB (2000-2005) described activities and resources for progress towards 2005 targets. The Second Global Plan to Stop TB (2006-2015) provides a roadmap for achieving the Stop TB Partnership's global TB control targets for 2015 consistent with the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) to halve TB prevalence and deaths by 2015 compared to 1990. Your comments on this working draft are welcome, as the Plan undergoes finalization. For more information and to submit your input please visit:
http://www.stoptb.org

Canada’s 2006/2007 Global Fund contribution falls short of fair share
September 9, 2005

In an announcement at the AIDS Vaccine 2005 International Conference in Montreal on September 9, Minister of International Cooperation Aileen Carroll announced that Canada will contribute a total of CAD $250 million over two years to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria, an average of CAD $125 million per year. The announcement came days after Canada failed to announce a pledge at the Third Meeting of the Global Fund’s Voluntary Replenishment Mechanism.

Canada’s fair share contribution is estimated at 4% of the Global Fund’s need, around USD $140 (roughly CAD $166 million) for 2006 and USD $160 million (roughly CAD $190 million) for 2007. This leaves a sizeable gap of around CAD $41 million in 2006 and CAD $65 million in 2007 between what was pledged and what was required of Canada. This new amounts pledged constitute a CAD $15M drop in Canada’s contribution to the Global Fund, which was at an all time high of CAD $140 million in 2005.

Canada’s failure to meet its fair share was met with disappointment by anti-poverty and health advocates in Canada and abroad. A higher contribution from Canada would have drawn more funding from the US, which has committed to funding a third of the Fund, and encouraged other countries to achieve their fair share contributions.

We urge you to write letters to the editor of major newspapers around the country and to write your MPs, clarifying this latest announcement in light of Canada’s determined fair share and the drop since last year’s contribution. The David Suzuki Foundation provides a good resource on tips for writing letters to the editor as well links to newspapers at:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/Take_Action/Letters.asp#links

Approximately 15% of Global Fund spending goes to fighting TB worldwide. The Global Fund supports national TB control programs in countries with a significant TB burden to improve case detection and treatment. For more detailed information on Global Fund supported programs, visit:
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/about/tuberculosis/

Canadian TB project in Ecuador commended
August 29, 2005

Canada won praise from leading international health experts for its success in fighting tuberculosis at the Sixth Annual Meeting of Stop TB in the Americas, which was held in Quito, Ecuador, Aug 23-26, 2005.

Led by the Canadian Lung Association (CLA) with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Stop TB program in Ecuador is a model for successful TB control. When the project began in 2000, Ecuador had the worst TB control program in the Americas. As a result of the Canadian project, Ecuador is now well on its way to having a model program in the Americas. The main thrust of the project is to implement the DOTS strategy for TB control as promoted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The yearly meeting brings together the ten priority countries for TB in the Americas - Bolivia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Ecuador, México, Nicaragua and Peru - together with donor agencies working in the area. Next year Colombia will be invited to the meeting.

For more information see:
http://www.paho.org/English/DD/PIN/pr050902.htm
http://www.sk.lung.ca/content.cfm/mr64

The World Health Organization declares TB an emergency in Africa
August 26, 2005

On Thursday, August 26, 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) unanimously declared the TB epidemic an emergency in Africa. The resolution was adopted by African Health Ministers at the 55th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Maputo, Mozambique.

In five of the six WHO world regions, TB incidence is either stable or falling. Africa is the exception, and the numbers are staggering. In the 18 most affected countries, incidence has quadrupled since 1990, and the number of TB cases has more than doubled in the continent overall. Currently, Africa accounts for more than a quarter of world TB cases, although it accounts for only 11 percent of the world’s population. More than a half-million Africans die from TB every year, around 540,000 thousand of the estimated 2.4 million that fall ill with TB.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, accompanied by TB experts and lead advocates in the fight against TB, backed the declaration in a journalist conference call on the following morning. "It is tragic that this disease has not been brought under control, because I am living proof that TB can be effectively treated and cured," said the Archbishop. “A full course of TB drugs that costs 15 dollars will save the lives of TB patients -- and in the case of people who are co-infected with HIV, extend their lives by precious years until ARVs (anti-retrovirals) become more widely available in Africa," he added in a statement in support of the WHO.

The WHO’s Regional Office for Africa clarifies that the resolution urges Member States in the African Region to commit more human and financial resources to strengthen DOTS programmes and scale up collaborative interventions to fight the co-epidemic of TB and HIV. Dr. Mario Raviglione, the WHO’s Stop TB Department Director stressed that among other things, the resolution urges “immediate measures by member states to implement emergency strategies and to intensify actions in the fight against the disease.” The resolution encompasses the measures included in the global Stop TB Partnership’s “blue print.” The “blue print” estimates a need for USD $1.1 billion in new funding during 2006-2007. Many country programs currently rely on grants from external donor agencies, like The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and most countries are reporting financial gaps in their national TB programs.  

Member states are also called upon to rapidly scale up joint TB and HIV control activities. The deadly synergy between HIV and TB is one of the main drivers for the current TB catastrophe in Africa. Persons infected with TB (often as children) are 10 times more likely to develop active TB when they become infected with HIV. In persons already HIV-infected, TB disease will develop more quickly and is more likely to be fatal if untreated. People that fall ill with lung TB then spread the airborne bacteria to others. Cramped living conditions, as endured by many of Africa’s poor, and especially the case for slum-dwellers, further exacerbate the problem. Second to HIV, poverty is often quoted as a major driver for the spread of TB.

In summary, the resolution urges member states to:


The resolution also requests the WHO Regional Director to:
For specifics on the declaration, refer to the website of the WHO’s Africa Regional Office for Africa at:
http://www.afro.who.int/press/2005/regoinalcommittee/pr11_20050926.html

The strong collaboration between Results International, the global Stop TB Partnership, and other partners contributed in part to the wide media coverage of the Maputo declaration.
 
Highlights from the 5th Annual TB Education and Training Network Conference
August 19, 2005
 
August 17-19th saw more than one hundred members of the TB Education and Training Network (TB ETN) gather for their annual conference and to celebrate five years of tremendous growth and success for this organization.
 
The mission of TB ETN is to bring TB education and training professionals together to network, share resources, and build education and training skills to strengthen global efforts of TB elimination. Established in 2001, TB ETN has seen its membership swell to over 500 members globally. Through the sustained and concentrated efforts of its members, TB ETN has brought issues of TB education and training to the forefront, and in 2004 received the CDC’s Excellence in Health Education Award for exhibiting significant potential to affect the practice of health education.
 
TB ETN membership includes representatives from a diverse range of TB programs, US Regional Training and Medical Consultation Centers, Lung Associations, international agencies, correctional institutions, managed care organizations, and universities.
 
The theme of this year’s TB ETN conference was Stepping Up Education and Training to Eliminate TB, and featured plenary and skill-building breakout sessions on the systematic health education process, partnerships, health literacy, marketing, materials and methods, cross cultural communication, materials evaluation, methods to enhance health communication, and performance evaluation.
 
TB ETN membership is open to all persons who have an interest in TB education and training issues. There are no membership fees and new members may join at any time. For more information, visit:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchstp/tb/TBETN

Outcome from G8 Summit on new action for HIV-TB
July 11, 2005
 
In the lead up to the G8 Summit at Gleneagles in July, RESULTS Canada and other members of the Global Treatment Access Group (GTAG) called on Canada’s G-8 representatives to Step up Efforts to Halt the TB/HIV co-epidemics in Africa.  
 
Significantly, Canada’s G-8 Sous-Sherpa Brian Morrisey, who was responsible for preparing a subset of the summit agenda, raised the issue of TB/HIV co-infection up in G-8 talks. As a result, G8 leaders committed themselves to help meet needs identified by the Stop TB Partnership in the global fight against TB.
 
Excerpts from the point no.18 (Investing in People) of the official signed communiqué from Gleneagles summit include:
 
d) ... We will work to meet the financing needs for HIV/AIDS, including through the replenishment this year of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and actively working with local stakeholders to implement the '3 ones' principles in all countries.
 
e) ... Building on the valuable G8 Global HIV/AIDS vaccine enterprise, increasing direct investment and taking forward work on market incentives, as a complement to basic research, through such mechanisms as Public Private Partnerships and Advance Purchase Commitments to encourage the development of vaccines, microbicides and drugs for AIDS, malaria, TB and other neglected diseases.
 
h) … helping to meet the needs identified by the Stop TB Partnership. We also support the call for a high-level conference of Health Ministers for TB in 2006.
 
For the full text of the full communiqué, visit:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/PostG8_Gleneagles_Communique.pdf

10th Annual Conference of the IUATLD North American Region
March 2 – 4, 2006
 
The Annual Conference of the North American Region (NAR) of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease has become the pre-eminent TB meeting on the continent. It is not too early to plan to attend the March 2-4 conference in Chicago at the Millennium Knickerbocker Hotel. The meeting begins with the nursing sessions on Thursday afternoon of March 2nd. The formal meeting will be launched later that afternoon at 4:45 with the George Comstock lecture given by Dr Tom Friedan, Health commissioner for New York City and its former director of TB services. His topic “Fifty years of TB” will be a salute to Dr George Comstock the father of TB epidemiology, who will be attending the meeting.
 
Following Dr Friedan talk will be the “Beyond TB” lecture. Traditionally this looks at other diseases and challenges of past and present and how their solutions or challenges relate to TB. The 2006 “Beyond TB” lecture will be given by WHO's Dr David Heymann, formerly director of the Communicable Disease section of WHO, and now leading the polio elimination campaign. Dr Heymann will talk about the challenges of the coming flu pandemic.
 
On March 3 Dr Dick Menzies and Dr George Comstock will chair a session on TB Epidemiology with the world's leading epidemiologists, including Dr Hans Rieder of IUATLD Secretariat, addressing current trends in TB epidemiology. The afternoon session will focus on TB laboratory issues.
 
Abstract submissions for poster or oral presentations of research on all aspects of tuberculosis control are welcome. The deadline for submission of abstracts is November 10, 2005. Registration, travel grants and abstract application forms may be obtained at:
http://www.lungchicago.org/site/epage/23955_487.htm

Poster discussions will take place from 4-6 on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning March 4 will be an update of TB/HIV issues. The afternoon session will be a clinical session with case discussions by leading TB clinicians.
 
36th IUATLD World Conference on Lung Health
October 18-22, 2005
 
The theme of the Conference this year, held in Paris from October 18-22, is "Scaling up and sustaining effective TB, HIV and asthma prevention and control". The focus will be on applying the available tools efficiently and correctly to tackle TB, HIV/AIDS, asthma and other lung diseases such as pneumonia in children. The conference will make reference to the WHO “3 by 5” initiative to start 3 million persons on AIDS treatment by the end of 2005 and examine progress towards the 2005 Global Targets for TB.
 
Deadline for pre-registration is September 30. The three DOTS implementation working groups (DOTS Expansion, TB-HIV, and DOTS Plus for MDR-TB) will present their plans in a symposium on Tuesday, October 18. Dr. Anne Fanning will be presenting the symposium on “Advocacy for Stop TB at country level.” Check the conference program for dates and full descriptions:
http://www.worldlunghealth.org/Conf2005/index.php

Sessions of special interest to TB advocates include:
More on Stop TB Canada

Stop TB Canada was formed in February 2001 to support Canada in fulfilling its commitment to the targets of the G-8 Okinawa 2000 Communiqué to reduce poverty and the diseases of poverty and specifically to halve the global burden of TB by 2010.
http://www.g8.utoronto.ca/summit/2000okinawa/finalcom.htm

Stop TB Canada has the following objectives:
  1. To promote and support TB education for health care providers, decision makers and the public;
  2. To advocate for appropriate policies, guidelines and priorities that enhance global TB control;
  3. To facilitate and encourage communication with our members and partiers in an open and transparent manner to advance global TB control;
  4. To ensure collaboration and co-ordination between Canadian government departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), professional organisations, the private sector and other stakeholders in the global fight against TB.

Stop TB Canada is a member of the Stop TB Partnership, a global alliance to accelerate social and political action to end preventable deaths from TB and stop its global spread. To achieve that goal, the Partnership is committed to: promoting universal access to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment by accelerating the expansion of DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short Course) and increasing the availability, affordability and quality of TB drugs; developing effective strategies to prevent and manage multi-resistant and reduce the impact of HIV on TB; promoting research on new diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines.
 
For more information on Stop TB Canada, visit:
http://www.stoptb.ca

For comments or to submit headlines for publication in the next edition of Stop TB Canada e-News, please contact Labib El-Ali at labib@results-resultats.ca.
 
Other web resources for TB news and events
Other links:
World Health Organisation – TB
http://www.who.int/tb/en/

The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria
http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/

TB Global Alliance for TB Drug Development
http://www.tballiance.org/

The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation
http://www.aeras.org/index.html

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Stop TB Bulletin is produced by Stop TB Canada with the support of RESULTS Canada.
 
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