By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical ...
By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases
Professor Tehmina Mustafa, CIH, Haukeland University Hospital, University of Bergen
Mustafa began by pointing out that the UN Millennium Development Goals, which preceded the SDGs (Goal 6: COMBAT HIV/AIDS, MALARIA AND OTHER DISEASES), had only highlighted a few global communicable diseases. The SDGs continue to address the challenges of communicable disease epidemics, but have a widened focus to include a number of other important diseases. Also diseases that are not only pathogen caused.
Mustafa underlined that communicable disease epidemics highlight other global issues such as social injustice and social inequality. The years of life lost to these diseases is much higher in “hot-spots”, generally located in low- and middle-income countries.
According to Mustafa, the approaches included in the SDGs are more integrated than those of the MDGs and will be better able to lead to research directions that will help to alleviate the health and economic implications of communicable disease outbreaks.