STOP TB PARTNERS' FORUM New Delhi 24 March 2004

Abstract

There are nine million reasons for being here today. Nine million people developed tuberculosis last year, and two million of them died. We are here to see what has been done and what must be done to control this disease that is causing so much suffering and loss of life.We have a global partnership to Stop TB. We have a strategy for achieving it, called the DOTS strategy. And we have global targets. During the last ten years, there has been great progress towards reaching those targets, but we have to do much more if we are to reach them. That is why the theme of this Partners' Forum is "Keeping the pledge". The World Health Assembly endorsed the targets for 2005, and those for 2015 were endorsed as part of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.