• The Union Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, has been appointed as the chairman of “Stop TB Partnership Board” on March 18, 2021.
• This appointment was made to recognise his outstanding contribution towards the movement of eradicating Tuberculosis (TB) from India by 2025.
• He will be serving the global body for a three-year term from July 2021.

Stop TB Partnership

• It is an international body which is having the power to align the nations to fight against TB.
• The body observes the participation of a wide range of constituencies which provides credibility to this body. With the participation of several constituencies, the body gets a broad range of medical, social and financial expertise which is required to defeat TB.
• The body works with the vision of a “TB-free world”.
• Stop TB Partnership was established in 2000. The body has been mandated to eliminate Tuberculosis as a public health problem.
• The organization was established after the meeting of First Session of Ad Hoc Committee on Tuberculosis Epidemic which was held in London in 1998.
• The organisation called for collaborative action from ministerial delegations through the Amsterdam Declaration. The ministerial delegations were to be participate from the 20 countries which is having the highest burden of TB.
• The body has 1500 partner organizations including the international, non-governmental and governmental organizations.
• It is based at Geneva, Switzerland.
• India has committed to eliminating TB by 2025.
• India’s deadline is five years ahead of global deadline of 2030.
• The Government has also out forward the National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination for the year 2017-2025. It highlights the ambitious agenda and targets of ending TB Strategy.