The tools we have to fight the disease are woefully inadequate.
 
Global Health

STOPPING TB

Bringing the Fight Against Tuberculosis Into the 21st Century

Every year, nearly 2 million people die from tuberculosis. The tools we have to fight the disease are woefully inadequate. The world has an 80-year-old vaccine that doesn’t work very well. The standard diagnostic test for tuberculosis is even older, and it misses about half the cases. There are effective antibiotics, but the drug regimen must be followed for at least six months, which means that many people are unable to complete a full treatment course. When people fail to complete the treatment, the incidence of drug-resistant TB goes up, making it harder and more expensive to treat. Moreover, as the HIV/AIDS epidemic continues, tuberculosis is a leading cause of death among people with HIV.

Yet 2006 saw important signs of momentum on TB research and development:

  • In January, the Stop TB Partnership, which includes private- and public-sector organizations from around the world, announced the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006 –2015. The plan lays out a series of specific goals to accelerate TB research, including developing at least one new TB drug and a quick, sensitive, and affordable diagnostic test by 2010 and developing a safe, affordable vaccine by 2015. Implementing the plan will require a threefold increase over the current level of funding. At the press conference launching the plan, Bill Gates announced that the foundation would increase its spending on TB by $900 million over the next decade, and he called on other funders to significantly increase their support as well.
  • Other TB grantees are also making progress: The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) is developing a test for multi-drug-resistant TB, and the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation opened a state-of-the-art facility to develop and produce TB vaccines. The Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS-TB Epidemic (CREATE) is evaluating new ways to use existing tools to control tuberculosis in areas with heavy HIV burdens.

The world has the know-how to defeat TB, and governments and other donors now must commit to making up the funding gap.