Movendi International congratulates the Secretariat and Member States for the progress made on ending TB and we are mindful of the remaining challenges.
The political declaration of the recent HLM acknowledged the importance of tackling alcohol as major risk factor for tuberculosis. It highlighted the need to integrate treatment of alcohol use disorder with TB prevention and care.
• Nearly one million TB cases are due to alcohol every year.
• Globally, 400 million adults have an alcohol use disorder. This means millions of people are at high risk of TB, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
In this context, Movendi International calls on WHO to identify ways to use population-level alcohol policy solutions through the SAFER technical package to lower per capita alcohol use in order to lower the TB burden. Using the full potential of alcohol taxation to both raise domestic resources while reducing alcohol use and harm is essential to help countries prevent and reduce TB cases.
We are ready to partner with WHO and Member States to help end TB by 2030 through advancing alcohol policy.