New Lancet article says that while a global commitment was made to provide social protection for people with tuberculosis, there is a lack of concrete actions and investment plans to achieve this goal.
This article discusses social protection for people with tuberculosis (TB) reflecting on the 2023 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting (HLM) on the fight against tuberculosis. The World Health Organization (WHO) has a goal to eliminate TB by 2030, but social determinants of health, like poverty, can make it hard to get treatment. The UN HLM pledged to give social benefits to people with TB, but there isn’t a clear plan yet on how to do this.
The authors of this article say more investment is needed in social protection, not just biomedical interventions. They also say that social protection should go beyond just healthcare and include things like financial aid, food, and job training. The article also says that current ways of measuring progress in TB care don’t take social determinants of health into account. The authors recommend that countries develop plans to improve social protection for people with TB and that more research is needed on how to do this effectively.
