Communities
Revitalizing the TB Community
In 2023, the TB community experienced a significant resurgence driven by in-person gatherings and building momentum through advocacy. Throughout the year, TB Alliance joined and hosted many in-person events—a growing trend in a post-COVID world—and worked with fellow non-profit organizations dedicated to TB to foster collaboration and reignite enthusiasm within the TB community and more broadly. Together, we worked to shine a spotlight on TB on a global stage at the United Nations and galvanize support for enhanced research, funding, and policy interventions. As a result, 2023 stands as a pivotal year where collective action and determination infused new energy into the TB field, offering hope and renewed focus in the pursuit of a TB-free world.
TB on a Global Stage at the UN
The 2023 United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (UNHLM) saw world leaders come together to commit to increased political will and funding to combat the TB pandemic in the form of a newly adopted Political Declaration. TB Alliance wholeheartedly supports the commitments made at the UNHLM on TB to fight this age-old disease and we worked with partners leading up to and during the week of the UN General Assembly to help draw global attention to this global disease. Along with our partners at FIND and IAVI, we co-hosted a side-event to address the challenges faced in combatting this deadly disease, revisiting previous commitments and progress, and renewing our focus to achieve TB elimination.
Joining Partners to Advance New TB Tools
In November 2023, ahead of the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris, TB Alliance held its Stakeholders Association Annual Meeting to highlight recent advances in TB drug development and delivery efforts. Key topics of the event included the announcement of a newly launched Pan-Phase 2 clinical trial, NC-009, testing a potential “universal TB regimen,” an update on the global rollout and uptake of pretomanid and BPaL regimen, and a panel discussion featuring health officials of TB-endemic countries relaying their experiences and insights regarding the adoption, use, and future plans for pretomanid and the BPaL regimen. This meeting was part of a full-day summit hosted by IAVI, FIND, and TB Alliance, as well as the TB New Tools Working Groups, as an opportunity to gather together ahead of the Union Conference to share updates in TB research related to vaccines, diagnostics, and treatments.
Engaging Communities
In March 2023, we hosted the first in-person Community Engagement Forum since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Our colleagues and partners joined us in Johannesburg for a two-day seminar that discussed a variety of topics, including Good Participatory Practices, Stakeholder Mapping, Youth Engagement, as well as an in-depth discussion and training on results from TB Alliance’s research, including SimpliciTB and BPaMZ/SEM. This was a true hybrid forum, as many of our Community Engagement partners were able to join us in Johannesburg, but the event was also streamed for presenters and participants who joined virtually.
Our Financials
The tremendous progress in advancing new TB cures and ensuring they reach those in need was achieved despite continued funding shortfalls for this critical, lifesaving work. In September 2023, the UN held its second HLM on TB and set a goal for annual investments in global TB efforts at US$27 billion by 2027, including US$5 billion annually for research. The goals are multiple times current funding levels, despite a commitment to close the TB funding gap made at the 2018 HLM. With adequate investment and political will, ending TB is possible but our global community must work together to ensure we remain accountable to our commitments if we are to achieve a TB-free world.
SPOTLIGHT: TB Survivor and Founder of TBPeople Philippines: Louie Zepeda-Teng
“In late 2006, when Zepeda-Teng was a 24-year-old architecture graduate working in Manila, she contracted tuberculosis (TB) – an ancient killer still common across the Philippines. She deteriorated quickly; bar hopping with friends was traded for long nights in hospital as the infection escalated. The bacteria had escaped her lungs and began attacking her brain as meningitis set in.”