Debate in UK Parliament: Ending TB
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Global Tuberculosis organised a debate on TB in the UK Parliament on the floor of the House of Commons on 7 June 2018.
The debate was led by two Members of Parliament (MPs) - Nick Herbert and Virendra Sharma. It emphasised the importance of the UN High-Level Meeting on TB and pressed the UK Government to take more action in the fight against TB. MPs called for more investment for TB programs and greater political leadership in the fight against TB, including the attendance of the UK Prime Minister at the High-Level Meeting on TB in September.
"The Treatment Action Group estimates that if countries pledged to devote just 0.1% of their overall gross domestic expenditure on research to TB research and development [R&D], the R&D funding gap would be closed. That is a goal for which I am sure other countries could aim. People watching this debate could say, “Let’s do that.” If other countries did that along with us, we could do something significant very quickly. In terms of the average over the past five years, the UK Government have already been hitting the target, but many other countries continue to invest far less than their fair share, and without them, we will not achieve the sustainable development goal."
The transcript of the full debate is available here.
