Press releases

MINSK, 13 December (BelTA) – A roadmap of partnership between the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), 15 Red Cross National Societies and regional TB communities was worked out at the regional meeting in Minsk, BelTA has learned.

The meeting was organized by the IFRC and the Belarusian Red Cross Society jointly with StopTB Partnership, an international organization for the world without tuberculosis (headquartered in Geneva). In their work they are guided by the principle of engaging and empowering a community of people living with TB/HIV. Therefore, representatives of the TB community advocates from the CIS and Baltic countries were invited to attend the meeting.

For three days the participants worked on the proposals for joint action to combat TB in Europe and Central Asia. According to the WHO, out of 30 countries with the highest multidrug-resistant TB burden nine are located in this region. Among them is Belarus. More than 320 new cases were detected in the region in 2016 and that is a lot. Therefore, our main task is to ensure early TB case detection and to build up the commitment to treatment. Here we need to join efforts to provide the necessary assistance to people who want to be cured of tuberculosis, to overcome the existing barriers: discrimination and stigma against patients,” said Davron Mukhamadiev, coordinator of the IFRC European Office (Budapest).

The roadmap will mobilize all available resources of the Red Cross major organizations and positive practices of regional TB communities that are just emerging. “We have over 150 years of experience, methods and models of working with patients; people living with TB and TB survivors. The roadmap lays out the measures to develop a partnership and the things it should be based on. Plans have been made to develop a series of documents that will help our work,” Davron Mukhamadiev noted.

He also noted that more similar regional meetings will be held. One of them was already conducted in Panama several weeks ago for the countries of Latin America. Meetings for African and Southeast Asia countries are to take place early next year. The regional roadmaps will be combined into a single strategy at the UN General Assembly next year.