My Letter to Megg Munn MP and first response.
Dear Meg Munn,
I am writing to you to respectfully bring your attention to the ongoing and worsening crisis surrounding Tuberculosis. The past 24th of this month was World TB Day and I hope that this year will mark the beginning of a concerted political effort in finally realising the threat of TB both in developing countries and here at home.
Abroad, TB kills 4,500 people a day, is the biggest killer of people with HIV and the third largest cause of death among women of reproductive age. Combined with increasing global urban population, the unsanitary living conditions this demographic shift has engendered and the increase in HIV, Tuberculosis is the most dangerous preventable and curable disease on the planet.
Unfortunately we in the UK do not have a concerted set policy regard TB. This lack of policy is both wasteful and dangerous. In a period of economic austerity where the UK is continuing it’s role as a major donor of foreign aid, cost effectiveness, though callous in human terms, has never been so important. For as little as £13 a person can be treated for TB, a life can be saved. In terms of cost-effectiveness; insuperable.
But it is not solely on an personal level that this plea comes to you. Tuberculosis has evolved. MDR-TB (Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis) is now a global threat. Taking up to two years to treat and increasing both abroad and at home MDR-TB needs to be researched and watched.
It is for these reasons that I ask you to urge the Secretary of State for International Development and the Prime Minister to create a working framework for TB and HIV that contains a vital set of results-based objectives on the UK’s efforts to meet the targets of the New Global Plan to Stop TB 2001-2015.
Please contact me to discuss this further.
Yours,
Liam Garcia-Lillis
