Below you will find the letter, prepared by Stop TB Partnership. If you wish to add your signature to the petition, please send your name and name of your organization to Colleen Daniels (colleend@stoptb.org).

2 March 2017

Global TB community demands  inclusion of mycobacterium tuberculosis in the WHO’s Global Priority List of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research, discovery and development of new antibiotics.

Dear Dr Chan, Dr Ren, Dr Kieny and Dr Inoue,

We are writing to you collectively as the representatives of the global TB community to express our deepest concerns about the exclusion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis within WHO’s first-ever ‘global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research, discovery and development of new antibiotics’, published on 27 February 2017.

While the list is a great initiative to guide us towards a world without resistance to antibiotics, it is outrageous that Mycobacterium tuberculosis was left out of consideration, for the reason that ‘it is already a globally established priority’. In other words, TB was not considered for inclusion in a global priority list, because it is evidently a global priority. This explanation defies reason.

TB’s exclusion sends the false and counterproductive message that drug-resistant TB is not a public health threat. As we are well aware, TB is the world’s leading infectious disease killer and drug-resistant TB is responsible for one-third of all AMR deaths. It also provides the wrong impression that funding for TB R&D has been secured, though we know that the TB R&D funding available represents barely 30% of the needs and has been declining for the least three years.

Dr. Chan, we acknowledge  and thank you for the statement on 28 February in which you clearly highlighted that “Addressing drug-resistant TB research is a top priority for WHO and for the world”.

However, we, the undersigned individuals and organizations, demand that you show strong leadership by facilitating the timely review of the Global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research, discovery and development of new antibiotics in order to includemycobacterium tuberculosis on it.

This review should be conducted without any further delay to include its findings within the ‘full protocol and results’ to be published on the WHO website no later than end of May 2017.