24-25 November 2005

The Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, Dr. Marcos Espinal, was invited to make a special presentation on the global TB epidemic and regional TB emergency in Africa at the 2005 World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Rome, Italy on 24-25 November. The summit was organized by the Gorbachev Foundation and sponsored by the Municipality of Rome, this year's theme being "Africa Emergency: From Attention to Action." The gathering attracted a number of Nobel Peace laureates including Mikhail Gorbachev, Frederik Willem De Klerk, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, John Hume, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Betty Williams, Rigoberta Menchù Tum, and Lech Walesa, as well as special guests Bob Geldolf, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Carla Del Ponte and others.

Nobel Peace Laureates call for the international community and African nations to address the scourge of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria

"We're All In This Together": The Global Fight Against Tuberculosis
Remarks by Dr. Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary, Stop TB Partnership
Gorbachev Foundation - World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates
Rome, 24 November 2005

Speech excerpt

"Two billion people, a third of the world population, carry the germ that cause tuberculosis. Nearly 9 million people fall ill with TB every year, of whom more than half live in Asia and almost a third in Africa. Two million of these individuals die, 5,000 every day, one person every 15 seconds - the vast majority of them the poorest people in the poorest countries who are lost in the most productive years of their lives, leaving families behind. That is nearly a dozen tsunamis of death and household destruction every year, as regular and predictable as the seasons. And nearly all of these individuals could be cured with cheap, cost-effective treatment. .. The modern TB epidemic is one of the most egregious symbols of social injustice in today's world, and of the growing divide between the haves and the have-nots. It is at once a symptom and a major cause of poverty and underdevelopment. It is, or should be, an affront to the conscience of everyone who believes in the global common well-being. And nowhere is the TB epidemic more serious and the response more urgent today than in Africa - where HIV is the driving force."

Click here for the full speech.

Photo credit: Stop TB Partnership

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