We can't talk about Antimicrobial Resistance without talking about TB

Nick's speech at the UN High Level Meeting on AMR in New York

The biggest challenge for the AMR agenda is to secure action today for threats which in large part will manifest themselves tomorrow. But some threats are already clear and present, and one of those is TB.

Deaths from drug resistant TB are in the top five of AMR deaths today, and they'll be the one of the biggest causes of AMR deaths tomorrow. And they’re an especially significant component of the AMR challenge in low and middle income countries.

 So we simply can't talk about AMR without talking about TB. TB is both an opportunity and a necessity to deliver immediately on the AMR agenda, and it's essential to do so because drug resistant TB is a risk to everyone. It’s the only major AMR infection to be transmitted by air.

“Drug resistant TB is a risk to everyone - it’s the only major AMR infection to be transmitted by air”

But with 1.3 million deaths a year from TB, 10.6 million new cases of TV every year, over 400,000 of which are drug resistant, fewer than 180,000 of which are treated, we need to accelerate the response and that means new tools: a vaccine which we still don't have, better drugs with shorter regimens which will reduce the risk of AMR, and better diagnostics – and diagnostics that we get out of the lab and closer to where people live.

This Declaration faces the same key challenges as the repeated declarations on TB, and that is to translate the commitments of political resolution to action. We need money. We need accountability. SDG 3 serves as an inspiration and a warning: a declaration of hope that major diseases such as TB can and must be beaten, but a lesson that the setting of a deadline in these declarations doesn't mean that it will be met.

Let me sum up simply. We won't beat AMR if we don't beat TB. And to do so requires action today. We don't have to wait. We don't need any more reports. We don't need any more political declarations. We know how to beat TB. Let’s just get on and do it.