Tuberculosis kills 1.7 million people a year, mostly in developing countries, even though we know how to fight this disease. Today’s World Tuberculosis Day reminds us about those who suffer from it and gives us the opportunity to mobilise the international community to do more and do it better.

In the European Union, we have already forgotten that TB can be extremely dangerous – in the end of 19^th century TB killed one out of every seven people in Europe and Americas. But in other part of the world (mostly in Africa – see map at the bottom) the problem of TB still prevails.

As the Commissioner for Development, I have always stressed the importance of improving the healthcare and I am pleased that the world has already committed to reducing new TB cases and deaths under Millennium Development Goals (Goal 6).

The EU commitment is expressed by concrete actions. For instance, 444.000 people have received treatment with effective anti tuberculosis drugs, thanks to our support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. We also help many countries to create sustainable health systems to improve the access to and quality of basic health services, like for instance in the DR of Congo.

But for me this day is not only the opportunity to demonstrate what we have achieved, but also to take a closer look on our own backyard and see how we can improve our actions to reach even more people and lower the number of causalities faster.

In the EU we work on stronger, more effective and more concerted efforts by the Commission and EU Member States in confronting the disease. Based on consultation with Member States and other stakeholders, the Commission will prepare a geographically comprehensive European programme for action to confront HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis through external action for 2012 and beyond.

Better coordination will allow us to maximise the use of our resources and our aid will have much higher impact. We still register 8.8 million new cases of TB a year and I call on the international community to mobilise their efforts to substantially decrease this number. As the EU Commissioner for Development I will strongly support the fight against TB and other deadly diseases. Healthcare must remain one of our highest priorities as without healthy population there will be no development.

Map: Estimated tuberculosis incidence rates 2008

Source: World Health Organisation

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