How many of us can recite Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals; let alone identify specific targets?  Perhaps, as health professionals, we should be familiar with important national health indicators and their relevance to our lives and our communities.

Global health days urge us to consider disease burden statistics; it’s hard to avoid them in the press, the media and in journals.  World TB Day statistics should motivate us to be more proactive within our individual areas of practice.  With 30% of the global population, The Commonwealth bears 49% of deaths due to tuberculosis.  To be more emphatic, these statistics represent 825,000 preventable deaths each year – a tragedy in terms of human suffering and its accompanying social and economic burden.  Eight CPA national member associations come from the group of 22 countries which WHO classifies as “countries of high TB burden”.

As pharmacists we know that TB, more specifically pulmonary TB, can be cured.  We also know that there are considerable challenges to be faced in realising successful treatment outcomes for our TB patients.  WHO’s Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015, through the work of National Tuberculosis Plans, is making progress; there is evidence that incidence rates are slowing in all WHO regions, except Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.  Working in collaboration with National Tuberculosis Plans, pharmacists can contribute significantly to community awareness, case detection, referral, treatment access and adherence (especially as DOTS providers) and monitoring drug resistance. Operational research and development of new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines are also areas of urgent need. Pharmacists must collaborate with other health sector professionals to meet the challenges of HIV co-infection, which is driving the TB epidemic in Africa and Eastern Europe, and the very serious and increasing spread of extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB).

CPA, as a member of the Stop TB Partnership, supports and promotes the Global Plan strategies to eventually eliminate TB.  I encourage CPA members to work collaboratively with their National TB Control Boards to attain Goal 6 of the Millennium Development Goals – a significant milestone on the way to the future elimination of tuberculosis.

Take a moment now to read about Goal 6 Target 8 at  www.mdgmonitor.org and compare progress in your own country with WHO benchmarks and the MDGs.

Ivan Kotzé
President
Commonwealth Pharmaceutical Association

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