Contact: Lizzy Lovinger, elizabeth.lovinger@treatmentactiongroup.org
November 11, 2024 — In advance of the 52nd Meeting of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (the Global Fund) and the 2024 Union World Conference on Lung Health, Treatment Action Group (TAG) releases this statement in response to ongoing conversations about the Global Fund’s program allocations for HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria.
TAG’s highest priority is reaching the end of the HIV, TB, and hepatitis C virus (HCV) pandemics. We recognize that funding is an essential part of the fight against these three diseases and, as such, we are committed to mobilizing greater resources for that fight. We demand greater public, private, and philanthropic support for the Global Fund. With a larger pool of multilateral, bilateral, and domestic resources, all global health programs will benefit.
We advocate using a syndemic approach that promotes equity by upholding the value of every life affected by HIV, TB, malaria, HCV, and all pandemics and health conditions. According to the most recent WHO Global TB Report, TB has reclaimed the disgraceful title of world’s top infectious disease killer, causing 1.25 million deaths in 2023 alone. Even a single life lost to a preventable and curable disease is too many, and all actors in the TB response must do everything they can to stop this grievous tragedy while also preventing unnecessary deaths elsewhere.
TB is the leading cause of death for people living with HIV, while malaria and other health conditions exact their own devastating tolls; these diseases are intrinsically linked as they affect many of the same populations, and people confronting a single disease likely face others. Recognizing this, TAG uses a syndemic approach in our activism which emphasizes the importance of research and programming that ensures broad public health benefits. People and communities affected by one communicable disease should never be unnecessarily excluded from research on another disease, and health technologies should be designed for the broadest possible use. Investments in health infrastructure benefit multiple infectious and non-communicable disease responses, hence, ours is a fight for a syndemics approach to disease elimination.
TAG will approach our own campaigns, and those led by our external partners, with these principles in mind. We invite open discussion and exchange about how best to end pandemics, improve the lives of affected communities, and increase the equitable distribution of public health benefits and scientific progress. Our work continues until a time when all people can access what they need to live healthy and fulfilling lives free of oppression.
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