Arundel & South Downs MP Nick Herbert met the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations last week to discuss ambitious targets to end the Tuberculosis epidemic.

Mr Herbert met H.E. Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés at the UN’s headquarters in New York City in his position as Co-Chairman of the Global TB Caucus, a role he shares with the South Africa’s Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi.

The Global TB Caucus, an international network of more than 2,500 elected political representatives from over 150 countries, was set up by Nick Herbert in 2015. The Caucus works to end the TB epidemic, a disease which continues to infect more than 10 million people a year and which killed 1.7 million people last year, more than Aids and Malaria combined. Since the year 2000, 30 million people have died from TB, and drug resistance is a growing global health threat.

Last year the United Nations convened a High-Level Meeting on TB, the first time the disease has received such a level of global attention, and Mr Herbert was one of the speakers. He also co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Global TB in the UK Parliament.

Mr Herbert’s meeting with the President of the UN General Assembly was an important opportunity to discuss the targets which have been set and the progress being made. The UN High-Level Meeting in 2018 called for an urgent global response and a commitment to end the epidemic by 2030.

Ms Espinosa tweeted to Mr Herbert after their meeting: “I want to congratulate your leadership on the fight against Tuberculosis globally. The Global TB Caucus and you have played a very important role in promoting the High-Level Meeting last year which I had the honour to chair at the beginning of my term.”

Mr Herbert said: “It was a pleasure to meet the President of the General Assembly and to discuss the steps which are needed to turn the strong commitments made in last year’s Declaration at the High-Level Meeting into action.”

Stop TB Partnership also tweeted: “Thanks to you @nickherbertmp for your hard work in raising the profile of the TB epidemic and helping the TB community keep the promises made at the UNHLM on TB on the table.”

ENDS

Notes for Editors

1. Photograph – Nick Herbert with UNGA President Maria Espinosa at the UN Headquarters.

2. To learn more about Nick’s work with the Global TB Caucus and APPG for Global TB see https://www.nickherbert.com/tuberculosis.

3. To read more about the Global TB Caucus see https://www.globaltbcaucus.org/

MP meets United Nations General Assembly President