The Stop TB Partnership and WHO Regional Office for Europe have brought together 100 key stakeholders and partners from 13 countries of eastern Europe and central Asia for the first time since the United Nations High-Level Meeting last September, to discuss and debate the status of the tuberculosis (TB) airborne pandemic, the high rates of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) and challenges towards ending this disease.

Held over two days in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, the high-level regional meeting is part of an initiative of the Stop TB Partnership, with financial support from United States Agency for International Development (USAID), to increase political commitment, domestic funding and innovative financing methods, and create regional movements towards ending TB through strategic engagements and dialogue. 

Uzbekistan was chosen as the venue thanks to its government’s exceptional political commitment to end TB, led by the Ministry of Health. 

Over the past decade, Uzbekistan has enhanced its prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB and DR-TB, consistently improving success rates. The country’s leadership is forward-thinking and bold, increasing targeted funding for TB programmes and making substantial investments in the procurement of medicines, setting its sights firmly on ending TB by 2050.