Brazil aims to eliminate tuberculosis and other diseases through a specialized committee

Decree No. 11,494 establishes the CIEDS, a Interministerial Committee to coordinate actions throughout the country to combat those diseases considered a public health problem.

07 June 2023

After the celebration of World Chagas Disease Day on April 14th, the Brazilian Government issued Decree No. 11,494, dated April 17th, establishing the "Comité Interministerial para la Eliminación de la Tuberculosis y de Otras Enfermedades Determinadas Socialmente" (CIEDS), an Interministerial Committee for the elimination of Tuberculosis and other diseases.
 
The CIEDS will be under the competencies of the Ministry of Health, and is due to promote intersectoral actions to contribute to the elimination of those diseases considered a public health problem in Brazil. Initially, the project reaches up to 2030, a date established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 for the achievement of a series of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) designed to create a better and more sustainable future for all. The country runs the programmatic guidelines set by the President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to approach social equity focusing on the basis of a better health access.
 
The Ministry of Health has been making this statement for months, with the participation of its Minister, Nísia Verônica Trindade Lima, in numerous events addressing this problem, such as the "Campanha Nacional de Combate à Tuberculose" (National Campaign to Combat Tuberculosis) in March, the International Seminar on "High Level Commitments for the elimination of tuberculosis as a public health problem" on April 12, and in May with the agreements reached, on the one hand, with UNITAID for a new strategy 2023-2027 for better access to new technologies and, on the other hand, the agenda for the elimination of diseases in the field of South-South collaboration with The Global Fund; both initiatives extendable to other neglected diseases, such as malaria, HIV, and Chagas disease.
 
 
According to the Ministry of Health's Epidemiological Report 2022 on chronic Chagas disease, published on its World Day, last April 14th, it is estimated that about 1 million people in Brazil are infected by Trypanosoma cruzi. Recent studies raise those from 1.9 to 4.6 million. Chagas disease is also one of the four leading causes of death from infectious and parasitic diseases, with an average of 4,000 deaths per year in the last 10 years.