Health Ministers joined the virtual High-level meeting on a global drive to scale up Tuberculosis prevention with World Health Organization-WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying that the disease remains one of the leading infectious killers globally and the leading cause of death among people living with HIV. 

He submitted that in 2018, Member States made bold commitments to provide TB preventive treatment to at least 30 million people by 2022, including 6 million people living with HIV.

In addition he said, to reach the targets and end TB the world needs to scale up preventive treatment for household contacts of people with TB, scale up access to primary healthcare as well as build the capacity of health workers and health systems to use TB preventive treatment.

(With input from agencies)