Lessons from Jonathan Mann

I welcome the latest issue of the Health and Human Rights Journal with a Special Section on Tuberculosis (TB) and the Right to Health. TB is indeed a major challenge to global health. It is one of the most serious impediments to the attainment of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that recognise the interdependence of health and development. SDG 3 aims to “attain healthy lives and well-being for all”. As most papers in the Special Issue acknowledged, the statistics are alarming: in 2013 alone, there were approximately nine million cases of TB and 1.5 million deaths resulting from the disease. This means that many people are being left behind so that inclusive and equitable development is not being realised. The special section drew attention to the extent of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and the estimation that 5% of cases of TB worldwide are MDR-TB, that many people with MDR-TB remain undiagnosed. Many of the world’s health systems do not have the capacity to detect and treat MDR-TB. It is a problem that has led UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to establish a High Level Panel on Access to Essential Medicines. He stated,