The historic and unprecedented United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (UNGA-HLM-TB)—‘United to End TB: An Urgent Global Response to a Global Epidemic’

On September 26, 2018, history will be made. For the first time ever, the United Nations General Assembly will meet in New York (WHO, 2018a,b) with a specific focus on tuberculosis (TB), which is the leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide (WHO, 2017). The theme of the meeting is ‘United to End TB: An Urgent Global Response to a Global Epidemic’ (United Nations, 2018a). Heads of state will gather in New York at the first-ever United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (UNGA-HLM-TB) to accelerate efforts in ending TB and reach all affected people with prevention and care. This unprecedented meeting has focused global attention and generated high expectations of a major ‘step-up’ change for advancing political will to bring the devastating global TB epidemic under control. The UNGA-HLM-TB will be attended by heads of state, government ministers, the UN Secretary General, other UN leaders, parliamentarians, scientists, healthcare workers, civil society, community representatives, private sector individuals, and UN ambassadors, among other advocates (United Nations, 2018b). The UNGA-HLM-TB will be only the fifth time in the history of the United Nations that the General Assembly has called for a highlevel meeting devoted to a specific health issue. The first high-level meeting was the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS on June 25, 2001 (United Nations, 2018c), the second was on non-communicable diseases and was held on September 19, 2011 (WHO, 2011), the third was on Ebola and was held on September 25, 2014 (WHO, 2014), and the fourth was on antimicrobial resistance and was held on September 21, 2016 (WHO, 2016). The preparation and organization of the UNGA-HLM-TB has been a lengthy, coordinated, and consultative process directed by the President of the UN General Assembly (United Nations, 2017). Given the complex nature of the factors driving the global TB epidemic (Grange and Zumla, 1999, 2002; Grange et al., 2001, 2009), discussions have involved multi-stakeholder panels covering key themes, with numerous consultations and meetings at the national, regional, and global level and with the participation and engagement of all stakeholders. Key leadership roles have been played by The Stop TB Partnership, the World Health Organization Global TB Programme, the Global TB Caucus of parliamentarians, and the International Union Against TB and Lung Diseases (The Union), in liaison with governments of highand low-incidence