MONGOLIA PARTICIPATES IN GLOBAL CONFERENCE ON TUBERCULOSIS

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ Minister of Health D.Sarangerel represented Mongolia at the Global Ministerial Conference on Ending Tuberculosis in the Sustainable Development Era, held in Moscow, Russia on November 16-17. The international conference brought together delegates from 114 countries, including 75 Ministers, who adopted a Ministerial Declaration, agreeing to take urgent actions to end tuberculosis. The meeting was attended by more than 1000 participants, ministers and country delegations, as well as representatives of civil society and international organizations, scientists, and researchers. President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation opened the Conference, together with Amina J Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary General, and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. On the second day of the conference, the Mongolian Minister partook in the Ministerial parallel panel on Monitoring and Evaluation of Progress towards SDG Targets, which was attended by nine Health Ministers. Minister D.Sarangerel discussed key actions taken in Mongolia to improve surveillance and monitoring among tuberculosis risk groups, underlining the importance of active tuberculosis screening in the risk groups, strengthening the inter-sectoral cooperation in national and local levels and enhancing the tuberculosis surveillance system. “It is particularly important to advance the case-based online system for tuberculosis recording and reporting, improve the data processing potentials on national and local levels and consistently monitor the progress towards achieving national and international goals,” said the Minister. According to WHO, the two-day conference resulted in collective commitment to ramp up action on four fronts: Move rapidly to achieve universal health coverage by strengthening health systems and improving access to people-centered TB prevention and care, ensuring no one is left behind. Mobilize sufficient and sustainable financing through increased domestic and international investments to close gaps in implementation and research. Advance research and development of new tools to diagnose, treat, and prevent TB. Build accountability through a framework to track and review progress on ending TB, including multi-sectoral approaches. Kh.Aminaa