Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senators Moore and Fierravanti-Wells, move:

That the Senate—

(a) notes that:

(i) 24 March is World Tuberculosis Day and the theme in 2017 is "Unite to End TB",

(ii) World Tuberculosis Day is a designated World Health Organization global public health campaign and is an annual event that marks the anniversary of German Nobel Laureate, Dr Robert Koch's 1882 discovery of the bacterium that causes Tuberculosis (TB),

(iii) TB is contagious and airborne, and ranks as the world's second leading cause of death from a single infectious agent,

(iv) in 2016, TB was one of the top ten causes of death worldwide, was responsible for more deaths than HIV and malaria, and there were an estimated 10.4 million new (incident) TB cases worldwide,

(v) Papua-New Guinea has one of the highest rates of TB infection in the Pacific, with an estimated 33,000 total cases, including 2,000 drug-resistant cases in 2015,

(vi) the prevalence of multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) continues to increase worldwide – there were an estimated 480,000 new cases of MDR-TB and an additional 100,000 people with rifampicin­ resistant TB (RR-TB) who were also newly eligible for MDR-TB treatment,

(vii) TB is the leading cause of death among HIV positive people – HIV weakens the immune system, and in combination with TB is lethal, each contributing to the other's progress, and

(viii) TB is considered to be a preventable and treatable disease, however, current treatment tools, drugs, diagnostics and vaccines are outdated and ineffective;

(b) recognises:

(i) the impact of the increased support by Australia to combat TB in Papua­ New Guinea, the need for continued support for prevention and treatment, as well as development of new tools and strategies to combat TB, consistent with the World Health Organization's End TB Strategy,

(ii) current Australian Government funding of health and medical research that is helping to bring new medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines to market for TB and other neglected diseases, and

(iii) that the ongoing support for research and development of new simple and affordable treatment tools for TB and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is essential if the goals of the End TB strategy are to be met; and

(c) supports the Australian Government providing continued funding for TB prevention and treatment in Papua-New Guinea, and continued funding for the development of improved diagnostics, medications and vaccines to combat TB, beyond 2017.

Question agreed to.