Santiago, August 22 - Hon Gisela Scaglia, MP from Argentina, and Hon Juan Luis Castro, MP from Chile, met authorities from the Ministers of Health and Foreign Affairs to call for action on the HLM on TB targets agreed by all UN Member States las September 26th, at the UN General Assembly.
The delegation met with Mr Ricardo Bosnic, director of Multilateral Politics in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and his team, and with Dr Paula Daza, Subsecretary for Public Health from the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Health Foreign Affairs Advisor, Patricio Muñoz Jara.
Hon Castro introduced the Global TB Caucus and the commitment members have to bring political will to the TB epidemic. Hon Scaglia presented the work being done within the G20 and in other important platforms, including the UN General Assembly where a historical Political Declaration was agreed with ambitious commitments to put the world on track to end the TB epidemic.
Cintia Dantas, Global Advocacy Director at the Global TB Caucus Secretariat, also presented the need for Chile to step up in the fight against TB and become a protagonist in the region, considering the upcoming Global Fund to end AIDS, TB and Malaria Replenishment Campaign. Veronica Montes, from the Donor Relations Department of the Global Fund, then presented some important data around what the Global Fund invests on and how Chile could be part of this donor community.
Both authorities were very interested in joining efforts to fight TB in the country and in the region, and committed to reaching the extra mile to reach the targets already agreed worldwide.