Nick delivers keynote at World Lung Conference

I am honoured to be invited to speak to you again this morning.

It is a privilege to be here with you all: the people who energise the fight against TB.

The heroes who dedicate your careers in service of the millions of victims who face the tyranny of this oldest of diseases.

So that our fellow human beings may be saved from it, and future generations may be spared from it.

Thanks to your efforts, and the work of the institutions you represent, 75 million lives have been saved since the start of this century. 

And, through the Sustainable Development Goals and now two High Level Political Declarations, we now have the strongest set of global commitments ever to beat this disease.

These global resolutions were hard fought and hard won.  And they could make the difference we need.

They offer us a shared goal, and a shared plan. 

But the WHO’s Annual TB Report published last week was a stark reminder that in a world where the incidence and mortality of TB is increasing …

… where three out of five people with MDR TB are still not being reached …

 and where the finance gap continues to grow …

words alone are not enough.

We need action.

A programme in every country to translate declarations into delivery.

And this will need resources in every country.

And securing these resources will require political leadership in every country.

You might not think much of politicians.  But whatever your views, whether you like it or not, politicians matter to you.

Because we vote the money.  We pass the laws.  We set the priorities.  We influence the leaders.  We have a platform and we have a voice.

Parliamentarians have the power to effect change.  But they also have many claims on their attention.

And unless they are persuaded and mobilised, we can’t assume that they’ll act.

They need to be made aware of the issue and encouraged to do the right thing.

That’s why, nine years ago, I stood before this conference, introduced the Barcelona Declaration to demand action, and launched the Global TB Caucus.

At our first meeting we were just a handful of elected representatives in a small room.

Today we number over 2,500 parliamentarians operating in 150 countries.

Then, there were only four national TB caucuses.  Just four.

Now there are 60.  

And perhaps it isn’t surprising that where there’s a national TB caucus there’s greater governmental attention to TB and, crucially, greater mobilisation of resources.

We couldn’t have achieved this without the support of our partners, especially the Union, the Stop TB Partnership, the Gates Foundation, the Global Fund and most recently FIND.

To all of you, thank you.

But now we have more work to do, and frankly we need your help again.

With the passing of the new Declaration, and a shrinking timetable, we have to change gear.

We need new funding to grow our support and re-energise our parliamentary network.

In every parliament, we need to hold governments to account for the promises they made once again at the UN to you, to their citizens, and to the world. 

In every parliament, we need to hold governments to account for the promises they made once again at the UN to you, to their citizens, and to the world. 

They said TB must be beaten by 2030.

And we know that this disease can be beaten.

After all, it’s been curable for nearly a century.

There’s enough medical expertise and scientific knowledge in this room to do the job.

With incredible innovation in diagnostics, treatment and prevention we have the best opportunity we have ever had to conquer TB.

And while the resources we require to invest in research, development and implementation are significant, they aren’t impossible to find.

Look at the sums rightly mobilised to fight Covid, and the speed with which new tools were developed.

This isn’t a medical or scientific challenge.  It’s a political challenge.

So once again, I urge everyone here to lobby their elected representative.

If you, the people who care most about lung health and beating TB, haven’t urged your representatives to act, who do you think will?

Don’t just send them an e-mail.  They each get thousands of those.  Go and see them.

Nothing works better than a face-to-face meeting.

Tell them that we need their help.

Tell them that this ancient disease is still here in the modern world.

Tell them that it can and should be beaten.

Tell them that, yes, taking action will cost money, but it will save millions of lives and in turn millions of dollars in future.

Tell them that if they want to prevent the next pandemic they need to learn the lessons, and deal with this one.

Tell them that drug resistance, not least in TB, is a clear and present danger which they should no longer ignore.

Tell them that no epidemic in human history has been beaten without a vaccine and we still don’t have one for TB.

Tell them that time is running out to meet the deadline their own political leaders set to beat this disease.

Tell them they’ve got just six years left.

Six years to honour the promises they made the world.

Six years to save tens of millions of lives.

Six years to end this shameful inaction, and end TB, once and for all.

Thank you.