Your Excellencies,

Ahead of next year’s High-Level Comprehensive Review of Progress by Heads of State on the fight against tuberculosis (TB), we are writing to urge you to ensure that the voice of healthcare workers and researchers is included throughout the process.

Prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, TB was the single biggest infectious disease killer on the planet. The UN High-Level Meeting on the fight against TB in 2018 marked a significant step in the global effort to scale up the programmes, research and investment needed to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goal of ending TB by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic has knocked out decades of progress, with millions of people missing out on life saving diagnosis and treatment, and many more falling ill as a result.

As healthcare staff working on the frontline, we have a unique perspective on the barriers and systemic issues which prevent people from accessing life-saving treatment and care. As researchers, we are at the cutting edge of the scientific effort to better understand the TB pandemic and to create the new tools and approaches needed for equitable access to TB prevention and care to end TB once and for all.

Alongside survivors, affected communities and civil society, we can make a vital contribution to deliberations in the run up to and during the High-Level Comprehensive Review next year. We are committed to leveraging our expertise and experience to ensure the meeting is a success, working in- country and cooperating internationally to ensure that the commitments made by Member States set us on the path to ending TB.

To do this, we believe it is essential that the High-Level Comprehensive Review take place during the UN General Assembly high-level week in September. While we appreciate that there are many competing interests during this busy time, it is critical to ensure the prioritisation of a disease that continues to affect millions of people each year and to enable appropriate alignment with the High-Level Meetings on Universal Health Coverage and Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

Frontline voices are critical to the success of the High-Level Comprehensive Review. We therefore request that you seek to include healthcare workers and scientists within the negotiations, including in multi-stakeholder consultations, plenary sessions and panels, as well as by encouraging member states to include healthcare workers and researchers within their delegations.

We are committed to working alongside survivors, affected communities, civil society and with our national governments to ensure a successful UN High-Level Comprehensive Review. We wish you every success in your preparations for the meeting.

Sincerely,

Dr Jessica Potter

Co-Chair, UK Academics and Professionals to End TB Consultant Respiratory Physician, North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust

Dr Kerry Millington

Co-Chair, UK Academics and Professionals to End TB Research Uptake Manager, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine

Alongside over 400 colleagues from around the world.*

Website: https://ukaptb.org/ Twitter: @UKAPTB Email: ukaptb@gmail.com

* The full list of signatories was included in the copy of the letter sent to the President of the UN General Assembly and the Co-Facilitators of the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB but is not being published online for confidentiality. If you would like further information about the final list of signatories, please contact ukaptb@gmail.org or janika@cghproject.org.

H.E. Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly H.E. Krzysztof Szczerski, Permanent Representative of Poland to the United Nations
H.E. Bakhtiyor Ibragimov, Permanent Representative of Uzbekistan to the United Nations

Tuesday, 13 December 2022