News and Events
2010
UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis President Sampaio in Jordan, April, 2010
UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis, Dr Jorge Sampaio visited Jordan on 29-30th April, 2010 to raise political and public awareness on Tuberculosis and Multi drug resistance tuberculosis. The visit started with a dinner hosted by HRH Prince Ali Ben Hussein to welcome the visiting guests, including Goodwill Ambassador Against Tuberculosis, international football star Luis Figo, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Hussein A. Gezairy and Stop Tuberculosis Ambassador of Jordan Ms Rania Ismail.
In the morning Dr Sampaio visited the Jordanian television studios to participate in a live show. During the show he talked about tuberculosis, his visit to Jordan to congratulate its people and the Government of Jordan on running so successfully the national tuberculosis control programme and providing care to multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients. He said that Jordan was a leading country among Muslim countries and set an example which needed to be replicated in other high disease burden countries of the Muslim world. He also spoke about his role as a global activist to promote inter-civilization dialogue.
Dr Sampaio later visited the Al Noor Sanatorium, a hospital run by a nongovernmental organization that receives patients not only from across Jordan but also from neighboring countries, such as Yemen, Sudan, Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic. President Sampaio congratulated the management of the hospital and the national control programme, which runs a structured system of patient recording, reporting and follow up and maintaining a high rate of treatment success. Dr Sampaio added that Jordan had done well in tuberculosis and multidrug-resistance tuberculosis care and should “export” their model to other Muslim countries facing similar challenges.
Al Noor Sanatorium provides diagnosis and treatment facilities for tuberculosis and also serves as a hospital for the treatment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patients. The centre, established in the 1950s, is one of the oldest tuberculosis and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis care facilities in the Middle East Region.
In the evening, Dr Jorge Sampaio, participated in a press conference and said that his mission to Jordan aimed at supporting the national programme and promoting its success as a beacon of hope among the millions of tuberculosis patients and people affected by multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world.
Jorge Sampaio emphasized that tuberculosis is a big public health problem and development concern in many countries and said “like Jordan we have to move progressively on providing care for affected people, this can only be done when everyone is involved, political commitment is sustained and partnership strengthened, only then can we achieve the real Millennium Development Goal of saving human lives”.
2009
UN Special Envoy visits Africa, challenges countries to tackle tuberculosis
Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, visited Ethiopia and Kenya for five days in December 2009 on a mission organized by the Stop TB Partnership in close collaboration with UNAIDS.
Dr Sampaio asked key stakeholders including governments to take an active role in helping people in need to gain access to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of tuberculosis. He also reiterated his request to ministers of health in Africa to set ambitious national targets and mobilize the funding necessary to reduce the number of people living with HIV who die unnecessarily of tuberculosis. He made the initial request at a Special Ministerial Session on Tuberculosis in Kigali, Rwanda in October 2009 (see news story below).
Dr Sampaio’s visit to Kenya coincided with World AIDS Day (1 December). In Nairobi, an educational workshop for schoolchildren focused on various aspects of TB and HIV, including their prevention and treatment. Mr Wilfried Lemke-the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sports, Development, and Peace-joined Dr Sampaio at a football tournament for boys and girls aged 12 to 14.
UN Special Envoy praises African ministers’ new commitment to fighting tuberculosis
In his remarks at the 59th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Kigali, Rwanda on 3 September 2009, Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, praised African health ministers for progress they have made on tuberculosis—particularly on integrating tuberculosis and HIV services—while at the same time urging stronger leadership on tuberculosis.
The Special Envoy presented participants with four requests. “First, please be ambitious!” he said. “Set ambitious national targets and mobilize the funding necessary to reduce the number of people living with HIV who die unnecessarily of TB.”
Second, he asked the gathered ministers to focus on the need for joint efforts, which are much more likely to produce results than isolated moves. “Therefore, mobilize HIV-affected communities, broader civil society and the private sector for a response to tuberculosis; and educate and empower them to become active partners in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB,” he said.
The third ask concerned drug-resistant tuberculosis. Very few people with drug-resistant tuberculosis are receiving correct diagnosis or appropriate treatment, he said. “Ministers, as you know, a drug-resistant epidemic is a serious threat to all your efforts! Don’t hesitate to press the international community to support your efforts.”
2009
UN Special Envoy visits Africa, challenges countries to tackle tuberculosis
Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, visited Ethiopia and Kenya for five days in December 2009 on a mission organized by the Stop TB Partnership in close collaboration with UNAIDS.
Dr Sampaio asked key stakeholders including governments to take an active role in helping people in need to gain access to accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of tuberculosis. He also reiterated his request to ministers of health in Africa to set ambitious national targets and mobilize the funding necessary to reduce the number of people living with HIV who die unnecessarily of tuberculosis. He made the initial request at a Special Ministerial Session on Tuberculosis in Kigali, Rwanda in October 2009 (see news story below).
Dr Sampaio’s visit to Kenya coincided with World AIDS Day (1 December). In Nairobi, an educational workshop for schoolchildren focused on various aspects of TB and HIV, including their prevention and treatment. Mr Wilfried Lemke-the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Sports, Development, and Peace-joined Dr Sampaio at a football tournament for boys and girls aged 12 to 14.
UN Special Envoy praises African ministers’ new commitment to fighting tuberculosis
In his remarks at the 59th session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Kigali, Rwanda on 3 September 2009, Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, praised African health ministers for progress they have made on tuberculosis—particularly on integrating tuberculosis and HIV services—while at the same time urging stronger leadership on tuberculosis.
The Special Envoy presented participants with four requests. “First, please be ambitious!” he said. “Set ambitious national targets and mobilize the funding necessary to reduce the number of people living with HIV who die unnecessarily of TB.”
Second, he asked the gathered ministers to focus on the need for joint efforts, which are much more likely to produce results than isolated moves. “Therefore, mobilize HIV-affected communities, broader civil society and the private sector for a response to tuberculosis; and educate and empower them to become active partners in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB,” he said.
The third ask concerned drug-resistant tuberculosis. Very few people with drug-resistant tuberculosis are receiving correct diagnosis or appropriate treatment, he said. “Ministers, as you know, a drug-resistant epidemic is a serious threat to all your efforts! Don’t hesitate to press the international community to support your efforts.”
As a final request, President Sampaio asked participants to consider the need for an initiative akin to the soon-to-be-launched African Leaders Malaria Alliance. “Why don’t we start working to launch a similar initiative for TB in September next year? Think about it!”
UN Special Envoy visits Rwanda to witness joint tackling of tuberculosis and HIV
In September 2009, Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé together witnessed, first-hand, delivery of integrated HIV and tuberculosis services during a visit to the Socio-Medical Centre in Biryogo, Rwanda.
“It is gratifying to be at this clinic, which has intensified TB case finding in people living with HIV through TB screening and transferring confirmed cases to a TB clinic. In addition patients who enrol at the health centre with tuberculosis are also tested for HIV and those found to be HIV positive are given integrated care and support. It is a programme that reflects Rwanda’s impressive progress nationwide on coordinating TB and HIV services,” said Dr Sampaio.
Mr Sidibé highlighted the progress Rwanda has made in improving the outcome of TB and HIV co-infection through better collaboration and the use of innovative diagnostic technology and underlined the UN’s commitment to effectively tackling the dual epidemics.
“I am pleased to see that Rwanda is leading Africa and the world in taking an integrated approach to dealing with the interlinked epidemics of TB and HIV. Rwanda’s bold leadership is achieving impressive results that show the rest of Africa what can be achieved,” he said.
Dr Sampaio and Mr Sidibé proceeded to another joint visit to Rwanda’s National Reference Laboratory in Kigali, where they saw evidence of the country’s major investment in laboratory services. They congratulated the laboratory staff on their excellent work and recognized the key role they play in reducing deaths from TB among people living with HIV.
They highlighted the need for much greater investment in strengthening laboratory services and committed to advocating for increased investment in research for a faster, simpler and more accurate TB test.
UN Special Envoy reports back to Clinton Global Initiative
“We have seen major strides this year,” said Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, as he spoke to assembled participants in the Clinton Global Initiative during his update on the TB/HIV Commitment in September 2009 in New York.
One year previously, Dr Sampaio had formally endorsed a commitment with the Clinton Global Initiative to increase engagement of global leaders in supporting coordination of tuberculosis and HIV services and ensure that their health ministries implement nationwide programmatic scale-up and capacity building for these combined services.
Dr Sampaio pointed to several other important advances over the past year: the adoption of TB/HIV response as one of the nine priorities of the new UNAIDS administration; intensified support from WHO a call from the Board of the Global Fund that all projects proposed for HIV must address tuberculosis and vice versa; preparation by the World Bank of a project with African countries hard-hit by HIV that aims to improve their integrated public health laboratory networks; support from the Gates Foundation for joint tuberculosis and HIV advocacy and further field research through the Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic (CREATE); and scaling up of civil society action for integrated service delivery.
The Clinton Foundation has made new efforts with industry to support access to rifabutin, which is needed in TB treatment among HIV-infected individuals (see Clinton Foundation teams up with Pfizer and Matrix to reduce cost of HIV and TB drugs, below). Other strides include major support for tuberculosis and HIV interventions from PEPFAR and US Congressional reauthorization of PEPFAR, including a recommended US$ 4 billion for TB control over 5 years; the opening of NIH-supported HIV clinical trial sites for tuberculosis research; and announcement of the Obama Administration’s Global Health Initiative, which includes HIV and TB efforts.
2008
UN Special Envoy urges Global Fund Board to scale up tuberculosis control
The Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as an outcome of its Eighteenth Board Meeting in New Delhi, India in November 2008, agreed on a decision point (DP12) aimed at massive scale-up of the actions needed to fully implement the Stop TB Strategy and the” Global Plan to Stop TB”:http://. The Board considered this decision point following a call from the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board that it make a bold statement on scaling up TB control.
Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, made closing remarks at the session. Noting the challenges posed by the current economic situation, Dr Sampaio urged the Board to fund tuberculosis control as one means to turn the crisis around. “In these hard times of financial crisis, it is rather suspicious to talk about investment. But nevertheless, the return on TB investment is high and it is good value for money,” he said, referring to a World Bank study released last year that showed that countries can earn more than they spend on tuberculosis control if they fully implement the Global Plan to Stop TB.
In closing his talk, Dr Sampaio noted that he had been speaking for eight minutes. “This means that since I started, 24 people have died of TB. Imagine how costly inaction is in terms of human lives!”
UN Special Envoy launches new comic book featuring Figo
In July 2008 Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, launched an educational comic book about tuberculosis. The comic, entitled “Luís Figo and the World Tuberculosis Cup”, features football star and Goodwill Ambassador against Tuberculosis Luís Figo leading a team of teen-aged girls and boys to a football victory over a team of tuberculosis germs.
“We hope this comic book, with its thrilling narrative and images, will convince young people all over the world that in the game of life, we are facing a tough match against TB. But it is a match they can win, along with their families and friends,” Dr Sampaio said. The event took place at the Centro Cultural de Belém on the occasion of a summit of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries.
UN Special Envoy commemorates World TB Day
Stop TB partners across the globe held events such as sports days, conferences and rallies on or around World TB Day (24 March) 2008.
In New York, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, Dr Jorge Sampaio, along with senior representatives from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Global Health Council, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, and Becton, Dickinson and Company participated in a roundtable discussion at Columbia University under the theme of “TB Today: Old Enemy, New Hurdles” (webcast). Later that day, they rang the Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
2007
Ministries from 49 countries sign the Berlin Declaration on Tuberculosis
UN Special Envoy gives keynote speech
Representatives from ministries of 49 countries in the greater European region endorsed the Berlin Declaration on Tuberculosis at the European Ministerial Forum, ‘“All Against Tuberculosis” held in Berlin in October 2007.
The declaration “notes with concern that TB has re-emerged as an increasing health security threat in the WHO European Region” and “recognises that a Europe-wide approach will be key to the control and eventual elimination of TB”. The declaration also calls for the adoption of the Stop TB Strategy in all its components, including addressing the funding gap between the total resources available and the resources needed to control tuberculosis and accelerate the development of new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines to achieve the 2015 Millennium Development Goal on tuberculosis.
“In our globalizing world, to successfully combat the threat of TB, a common strategy is critical,” said the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB and former President of Portugal Dr Jorge Sampaio in his keynote speech, adding that it is vital for “the European Union, as well as other major organizations, like for instance the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Council of Europe, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and other fora join forces to address the TB epidemic and face the common threats of the emerging MDR-TB.”
Dr Sampaio also spoke at the Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board meeting that immediately followed the forum.
UN Special Envoy addresses a high-level Washington audience on global TB challenges
Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB and the former President of Portugal, was the keynote speaker at a policy luncheon organized in Washington in October 2007 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Kaiser Family Foundation.
The luncheon, which was held at the Dirksen Senate Office building, took place at a time when the US Congress is deliberating the 2008 foreign aid funding bill and considering increasing total bilateral TB appropriations for 2008 to USD200 million. If approved, the 2008 funding level will be double what the US appropriated last year and would be the single largest commitment in the fight against TB.
“It is gratifying to see the U.S. Congress taking the lead by seeking to double its spending on fighting this deadly scourge,” Dr Sampaio said. “In light of the growing problem of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, world leaders are acknowledging the urgent need to step up the global fight to stop TB.”
Special Envoy to Stop TB visits premier TB clinic in New Jersey
Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB and the former President of Portugal, visited Newark, New Jersey in September 2007 to tour the New Jersey Medical School Global Tuberculosis Institute and its clinical facility, the Lattimore Clinic. He also visited the homes of patients receiving TB treatment in the neighbouring city of Elizabeth. The Lattimore Clinic, which opened in 2002 and is widely viewed as an exemplar for TB programmes because of the excellent and comprehensive care it provides, is the only clinic built in the last century for the sole purpose of serving TB patients in the United States.
2006
Statement from UN Special Envoy to Stop TB on World AIDS Day 2006
World AIDS Day (1 December) is an occasion to acknowledge the incredible progress made towards ensuring access to life-saving anti-retroviral therapy, ARTs. But this promise of life of ARTs will be undermined if we do not ensure that a curable disease like tuberculosis is addressed effectively.
Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death amongst people living with HIV/AIDS. The lethal combination of the two diseases makes it imperative that AIDS and TB programmes in affected countries work in close collaboration.
The recent identification of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis and its devastating impact amongst those with HIV demonstrates the deadly synergy between these two diseases. It demands massive new investment to strengthen the current systems for tuberculosis treatment and hasten the development of new TB tools and the urgent implementation of national TB-HIV policies.
We need to start working on tomorrow’s solutions today. It’s time to do it right, to do it now and to do it together.
President Jorge Sampaio
UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB
Jakarta, Indonesia.
UN Special Envoy announces World TB Day theme
“TB anywhere is TB everywhere – this is the chosen theme for World TB Day 2007”, declared UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, former Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, at the inauguration of the 37th Union World Conference on Lung Health, in Paris. President Sampaio spoke about global responsibilities in investing in the health workforce, addressing one of the greatest challenges for tuberculosis control and for the Millennium Development Goals in general.
UN Special Envoy pursues his fight against TB
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, Jorge Sampaio, is actively pursuing his efforts to place tuberculosis higher on international political and development agendas and to encourage countries to fund and implement the Global Plan to Stop TB (2006-2015).
In October 2006, Dr Sampaio met with Mr Barroso, President of the EU Commission, to encourage EU leadership through support of the Global Plan. The Special Envoy then gave an opening address at the European CEO Summit on Business and AIDS, promoting improved collaboration between TB and HIV/AIDS programmes, and opportunities for private sector involvement in the TB fight. The Special Envoy has also been in discussions with Enrique Iglesias, Secretary General of the Ibero-American Community, to increase tuberculosis-control activities and funding in Latin American countries.
Clinton and Sampaio discuss future collaboration on tuberculosis
Former US president Bill Clinton and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB Jorge Sampaio have discussed developing plans to work together on political advocacy around TB/HIV. Dr Sampaio, former president of Portugal, discussed the issue with his USA counterpart at the Global Clinton Initiative Annual Meeting, held in September 2006 New York.
President Sampaio thanked President Clinton for his commitment to date on raising awareness around HIV and tuberculosis, and stressed the need for even stronger collaboration in the future to ensure TB is placed high on international agendas, and better collaboration between TB and HIV programmes in countries.
UN Special Envoy addresses Health Ministers attending 56th WHO Africa Regional Committee
In his opening address to WHO’s 56th Africa Regional Committee in Ethiopia on 28 August 2006, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB Jorge Sampaio praised the commitment being shown today by African leaders engaged in the fight against tuberculosis.
At the Regional Committee meeting last year, African Health Ministers declared TB a regional emergency. Referring to this historic declaration, Dr Sampaio urged Health Ministers to develop without delay the national emergency plans required to combat the TB epidemic. “The challenge to all concerned with the TB epidemic—patients and their families and communities, governments and authorities of TB-burdened countries, health organizations and donors—is to articulate and embrace the commitments and extra actions that will be required to successfully control TB,” he said.
UN Secretary-General endorses The Call to Stop TB
In a May 2006 meeting with Jorge Sampaio, his Special Envoy to Stop TB, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan signed The Call to Stop TB, a campaign in support of the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015. The Secretary-General now joins a number of supporters of The Global Plan to Stop TB who are committed and ready to contribute to the battle against TB including UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Bill Gates Jr, actor Ralph Fiennes, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Stephen Lewis and others. The meeting between Dr Sampaio and the Secretary-General was part of Mr Sampaio’s tuberculosis advocacy tour during the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS.
UN Special Envoy visits WHO, Stop TB Partnership Secretariat
In May 2006, the newly appointed UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB, Dr Jorge Sampaio, visited the World Health Organization, including the Stop TB Department and the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat, for a series of strategic meetings to discuss the urgent need for enlisting support in the fight against tuberculosis. Meetings with WHO Regional Directors, the Assistant Director General for AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria, Stop TB WHO, Partnership Secretariat staff, and others contributed to Mr Sampaio’s tuberculosis agenda for the coming months.
UN Secretary-General appoints Former Head of State as first Special Envoy to Stop TB
In an important landmark for tuberculosis advocacy, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed former President of Portugal Dr Jorge Sampaio as the first Special Envoy to Stop Tuberculosis in May 2006. Dr Sampaio, whose appointment takes effect immediately, will work with the Stop TB Partnership to place tuberculosis higher on international political and development agendas.
In This Section
FIND US ON...
