[Listen or download this audio podcast] [Watch this video interview] The CSO Partnership for Development Effectiveness (CPDE) had organised a potentially game-changing meet in Bangkok to review the progress made on increasing effectiveness and accountability of civil society organisations (CSOs) since adoption of the Istanbul Principles seven years back and to brainstorm how Istanbul Principles can make Agenda 2030 a transformative one.
There is no doubt that groundbreaking progress has been made in fight against tuberculosis (TB) in the past two decades, but it might be prudent to review if we are winning the fight in order to #endTB by 2030. Do we slip backwards when we fail to prevent every single transmission of new TB infection or when a new person becomes resistant to anti-TB drugs? Are we sliding farther away from our #endTB goalpost, when we fail to ensure early diagnosis, effective treatment and successful cure?
When major weak-spots go beyond the purview of health ministry, inter-sectoral programming becomes critical to progress towards ending tuberculosis (TB) by 2030, globally. Indian government has committed to end TB by 2025 - a welcome political commitment indeed - but warrants urgent
and unprecedented actions to muscle up the required pace to keep this
promise. 
At the 25th Harm Reduction International Conference (#HR17) held
in Montreal earlier this week, over 1000 people gathered to address one of the great public health
challenges of our time: the lack of adequate support for people who use drugs,
and an increasingly hostile and economically austere environment that denies
basic services to a vulnerable population. Delegates at the conference include
activists, researchers, community workers, and people who use drugs.
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| Eni Lestari, Chair of International Migrants Alliance (R) and Shobha Shukla, CNS Managing Editor (L) |
Amid growing opposition against the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), civil society organisations (CSOs) in the Philippines, and across Asia Pacific, held actions and demonstrations to protest against this regional trade deal currently under negotiation between 16 participating countries. 
Asthma is a neglected tropical disease which cannot be cured but it can be treated and controlled. Good asthma control means a person can live life normally with no or very minimal symptoms. These were the sentiments shared by experts during a recently organised webinar by Citizen News Service (CNS) for media in lead up to World Asthma Day 2017. 
My first personal brush with the severity of asthma was several years ago, when one of my students suddenly started gasping for breath in the middle of her Physics Practical final examination of Class 12. We were clueless about the cause of her sudden affliction. Other than making her sit in the open air and force her to drink water, we did not know what to do. A frantic phone call to her parents elicited that it was an attack of asthma as she had forgotten her inhaler at home. Thankfully she normalized after a while. But the memory of those agonizing 15 minutes still remains etched in my mind. 
So said Jose Luis Castro, Executive Director of the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease (The Union). TB related stigma and discrimination still lurks in our communities and blocks access to existing care services. Jose shared several examples where TB patients felt isolated, frustrated and cornered enough to resort to extreme acts of desperation like suicide.
Later this month, health ministers of our governments will convene for World Health Assembly (WHA) to shape the agenda of the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as elect its new leader as Dr Margaret Chan's tenure as WHO Director-General comes to an end. During Dr Chan's leadership of WHO, adoption of the WHO End TB Strategy in WHA 2014 and world leaders coming together to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR) at UN General Assembly 2016, are among the key milestone moments.
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| (L to R) Film star Anil Kapoor, Dr Ishwar Gilada, and Professor Dr KC Mohanty |