Before the world was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, humanity’s deadliest infectious disease was a different respiratory illness, one that we have lived with for millennia: tuberculosis (TB). Vaccines developed and rolled out in record time are already driving a reduction in deaths due to COVID-19. Meanwhile, the outlook for TB remains dark: 4,000 people continue to die of the disease every day, including 700 children. And that curve isn’t budging. Good news in the world of TB has been in short supply this year. In fact, recent research has shown that the countries that bear the biggest TB burdens saw a drastic decrease in TB diagnosis and treatment after COVID-19 hit in late 2019. In just 18 months, the Covid pandemic and the measures taken to address it erased some 12 years of significant and measurable progress against TB. This is bad news for us all.

Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership, tells Health Europa Quarterly about the ongoing global effort to combat tuberculosis.

Dr Lucica Ditiu, the Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership, delivered a New Year address, Let's Rock in 2019!

01 December 2016, Geneva, Switzerland - Today is World AIDS Day, it is a moment for us to reflect on the amazing achievements we have made and the millions of lives that were saved, but also on the future needs if we want to END AIDS by 2030. On this World AIDS Day, I have just two statements to make:

Message from Lucica Ditiu, the Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership, for colleagues from TB programs, communities, Country Coordinating Mechanisms (CCMs), Principal Recipients (PRs), Sub-Recipients (SRs), advocates and technical partners.

Click here to watch a video interview with Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership given at the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Cape Town, South Africa.

Lucica Ditiu: The Red Arrow represents our unwavering commitment to move forward with the mission until we reach the finish line to End TB. The symbol belongs to no single organization, person, tagline, or agenda. It represents our unity against TB, and it’s in our hands to shape and give meaning to.

31 October 2015 – The 2015 WHO Global TB Report was launched a few days ago and the main take home message is that if we are to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and End TB Strategy targets, we need to CHANGE. Now, not later. It is already late.

Dr Lucica Ditiu is the Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, a global partnership of more than 1,300 partners – ranging from multilaterals to community- and faith-based organisations – with a vision of ending tuberculosis (TB), hosted by UNOPS in Geneva. Lucica recently travelled to Australia for the Asia-Pacific meeting of the International Union Against TB & Lung Disease. Camilla Burkot caught up with her during her post-conference visit to Canberra to talk about funding for TB research, engaging politicians, and what the Stop TB Partnership is doing to combat TB stigma. You can listen to a podcast here, and download a full transcript here [pdf]. For a summary of their conversation, read on.

27th September 2015, New York, United States - Among the long motorcades accompanying Heads of State and the many high-level events here at the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit in New York, it’s easy to forget that the key theme of the Summit is ‘Leave No One Behind’.