Equity in TB Vaccine Access: Health Secretary Sets Ambitious Target for 2025

APP

Islamabad: Ministry of Health Federal Secretary Iftikhar Ali Shallwani called upon the global community to expedite the development, widespread deployment and accessible availability of an effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine by the year 2025.

While addressing the high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis at the United Nations Headquarters, Ali Shallwani expressed the need for intensified efforts backed by increased funding to mitigate and reverse the negative impacts of the pandemic on TB.

The secretary highlighted the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on access to TB diagnosis and treatment, and the burden of TB disease.

He further emphasised that immediate action is required in the context of ongoing conflicts, the global energy crisis, and associated impacts on food security, which are likely to further worsen some of the broader determinants of TB.

Iftikhar Ali shared Pakistan’s progress in establishing more TB diagnostic centers and expanding its lab network to diagnose TB cases, especially multidrug-resistant strains of TB (MDR-Tb).

He highlighted that tuberculosis remains Pakistan’s top cause of death from infectious diseases and that Pakistan has the fifth highest TB burden globally.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Pakistan, with an estimated 510 000 new TB cases emerging each year, is ranked fifth among B-high-burden countries worldwide. It accounts for 61 percent of the TB burden in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region.

Health Secretary urged the member states to provide sustainable funding, quality and equitable access to the latest preventive and treatment facilities. He further demanded to invest in TB research and innovation and develop safe, effective and accessible vaccines, particularly for drug-resistant TB, with equitable distribution of vaccines.

Pakistan needs certain innovative approaches through private sector and civil society organization (CSO) involvement for TB response sustainability and affordability, Ali added.

Federal Secretary underscored Pakistan’s commitment to the objectives set forth in the 2018 Political Declaration on Tuberculosis by pointing out Pakistan’s achievements in the fields of TB prevention, diagnostic, treatment, and care services.