Extract
Until 2015, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals provided a framework for countries to work towards targets aimed at improving health. Major progress was achieved globally as a result of this drive. Important challenges, however, persist for both communicable (e.g. tuberculosis (TB) and HIV) and noncommunicable (e.g. tobacco use) health problems. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which now guide the global development agenda until 2030, approach these health problems more holistically [1]. The “integrated and indivisible” nature of the SDGs requires action across all layers of society. To achieve the health-specific Goal 3 (“Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”), countries also need to act on the other 16 SDGs, such as poverty (Goal 1), malnutrition (Goal 2), gender-associated inequalities (Goal 5), investment in information and communications technology and in research by the public and private sectors (Goal 9), transparency, accountability and nondiscriminatory laws (Goal 16), and cross-sectoral collaboration and partnerships (Goal 17).
Abstract
Use of digital technologies to support TB care and prevention can be a model for broader action to achieve the SDGs http://ow.ly/QEcE30fKnAZ
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the contribution to the arguments presented in this article of the Global Task Force on digital health for TB, chaired by Giovanni Battista Migliori (WHO Collaborating Centre for TB and Lung Diseases, Maugeri Care and Research Institute, Tradate, Italy), and composed of Andrei Dadu (WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark), Claudia Denkinger (FIND, Geneva, Switzerland), Luis Gustavo do Valle Bastos (Global Drug Facility, Geneva, Switzerland), Richard Garfein (University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA), Richard Lester (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada), Kirankumar Rade (Revised National TB Control Programme, New Delhi, India), Lal Sadasivan (PATH, Washington, DC, USA), Kaiser Shen (USAID, Washington, DC, USA), Alena Skrahina (National TB Programme, Minsk, Belarus), Giovanni Sotgiu (University of Sassari, Sassari, Italy), Alistair Story (Find & Treat, London, UK), Khin Swe Win (Myanmar Medical Association, Yangon, Myanmar), Zelalem Temesgen (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA), Bruce V. Thomas (The Arcady Group, Richmond, VA, USA), Kristian van Kalmthout (KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, The Hague, The Netherlands), Arne von Delft (TB PROOF, Cape Town, South Africa) and Mohammed Yassin (Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, Geneva, Switzerland). This editorial also draws on some of the discussions at a WHO/ERS consulation held in February 2017 [18] (figure 1).
Footnotes
Support statement: European Respiratory Society (ERS-WHO Agreement Phase 3 2017-2018). Funding information for this article has been deposited with the Crossref Funder Registry.
Conflict of interest: Disclosures can be found alongside this article at erj.ersjournals.com
D. Falzon, E. Jaramillo, K. Weyer and M. Raviglione are staff members of the World Health Organization (WHO). They alone are responsible for the views expressed in this publication and they do not necessarily represent the decisions or policies of WHO. The designations used and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of WHO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, nor concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
- Received August 9, 2017.
- Accepted September 12, 2017.
- Copyright ©ERS 2017