The elimination of tuberculosis in the world could be in sight if governments and donors invested fully in a plan published a few weeks ago by the Stop TB Partnership said the World Health Organization.
The plan, entitled Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015: Transforming the Fight-Towards Elimination of Tuberculosis reported for the first time all the gaps research that are needed to put on the market for rapid tests for TB, shorter treatment regimens and a fully effective vaccine.
It also shows how public health programs can promote universal access to care, diagnostic laboratories modernize and adopt testing revolutionary newly available.
"It is urgent to expand the fight against tuberculosis, otherwise 10 million people, including 4 million women and children, will die by 2015," said Dr Margaret Chan, Director General of WHO, where the Stop TB Partnership is hosted. "The fight against tuberculosis works. Indeed, since 2004 there has been a decline in the incidence of the disease worldwide, although this decline is too slow, "adds such.
Twenty-two countries including South Africa, accounting for 80% of the global burden of tuberculosis. Each year, some 9 million people contract active TB and nearly 2 million die. This new worldwide shows how to implement the diagnostic and therapeutic approaches recommended by WHO for 32 million people over the next five years.
TB is a curable disease but its treatment based on the simultaneous intake of multiple drugs for at least six months. In most countries, laboratories still use an old method of diagnosing a century of seeking the tuberculosis bacillus under the microscope in the patient's sputum. Moreover, there is still no vaccine to prevent tuberculosis, which is the most common form of the disease. The Global Plan
helps public health programs to adopt modern diagnostic tests currently available and offers a research program to develop two new rapid tests allows trained personnel proper diagnosis of tuberculosis, even in remote health posts and less well equipped. This is, by 2015, bringing in phase III clinical trials - the last step before placing on the market - three new regimens - one for drug-susceptible TB and two for drug-resistant tuberculosis . Four vaccine candidates should be at the same testing.
Regarding funding, the Global Plan indicates that 37 billion will be needed to implement the management of tuberculosis between 2011 and 2015. It remains a funding gap of about 4 billion - Roughly 2.8 billion per year - that international donors should fill.
The plan indicates, on the other hand, it will total 10 billion or 2 billion per year to achieve the goals of research and development. The high-income countries and those whose economy is growing need to invest more in research and development to meet a deficit estimated at about $ 7 billion, or 1.4 billion per year.
In 2006, the Stop TB Partnership launched the Global Plan 2006-2015. The new plan for 2011-2015 is in the same direction as the previous but sets new goals and ambitious for the next five years.
Source: UN
