[afro-nets] Global Effort to Stop TB Doomed Without New Drugs and Tests

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.za>]

Global Effort to Stop TB Doomed Without New Drugs and Tests
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MSF Press Release - 19 March, 2004
http://www.accessmed-msf.org/prod/publications.asp?scntid=19320041115502&contenttype=PARA&;
 
 
New Delhi / Geneva, 24th March 2004 (World TB Day) -- The inter-
national humanitarian medical organisation Médecins Sans Fron-
tières (MSF) today said that we are losing the battle against 
tuberculosis (TB) because we rely on archaic diagnostic tests 
and drugs. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has magnified this problem as 
TB often coincides with, and is made harder to treat by, 
HIV/AIDS. MSF calls for an urgent increase in worldwide invest-
ment in TB research and development. 
 
"Delivering adequate TB care would require a reliable diagnostic 
test for TB to begin with, but we don?t have one,? said Dr Rowan 
Gillies, president of MSF International, at the Stop TB Part-
ners? Forum in New Delhi. ?A growing number of TB patients 
worldwide also have HIV/AIDS, but the current diagnostic tool 
can only detect TB in 50% of HIV-patients even in a well-run TB 
programme." 
 
Diagnosis of children is particularly problematic as it mainly 
relies on detailing the symptoms and signs of TB, but can most 
often not be confirmed accurately. 
 
Current first-line TB drugs were developed in the 1940s to 
1960s. ?We can?t be satisfied with the TB treatment we and our 
colleagues in national TB programmes have at our disposal to-
day,? said Olivier Brouant, head of mission for MSF?s TB project 
in Mumbai. ?A patient must take TB treatment daily during six to 
eight months ? surely we can do better than this,? Mr Brouant 
said. In addition, most easy-to-use fixed-dose combinations of 
TB drugs are not available in paediatric doses in many of the 
countries MSF works in. 
 
Pharmaceutical companies are carrying out some R&D for TB, but 
they have generally disinvested themselves from antibacterial 
R&D. They cannot be relied on to bring a new TB drug to a market 
that mainly consists of people with very little purchasing 
power. 
 
MSF is therefore calling for governments and the World Health 
Organization to take the lead in defining and funding an ambi-
tious R&D agenda for TB based on public health needs. 
 
A diagnostic test for SARS was developed by the Genome Institute 
of Singapore just months after the outbreak of the disease last 
year. ?TB kills two million people every year, but where is the 
sense of urgency that will secure resources and accelerate the 
process of developing new tools to fight it?? Dr Gillies asked. 
 
MSF currently treats approximately 20,000 TB patients in 30 pro-
jects around the world. The organisation is also providing anti-
retroviral treatment to people living with HIV/AIDS in more than 
20 resource-poor countries. 
 
TB kills two million people every year. About one third of the 
world?s population is currently infected with TB, and roughly 
eight million of them develop active TB each year.