PHA-Exchange> UN-BACKED $2 BILLION RESPONSE PLAN TO CONTAIN TB LAUNCHED

[claudio at hcmc.netnam.vn]

 from Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au> -----
   
UN-BACKED $2 BILLION RESPONSE PLAN TO CONTAIN TB LAUNCHED
New York, Jun 21 2007  7:00PM

The United Nations World Health Organization (<"http://www.who.int/en/">WHO) 
and 
the Stop TB Partnership today launched a $2.15 billion two-year programme to 
save over 100,000 lives.

The new initiative lays out steps to prevent, treat and control drug-resistant 
tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

If fully implemented, the plan, which sets out measures to allow laboratories 
in 
countries with high levels of the disease to increase their detection of MDR-
TB 
cases, will lead to a ten-fold surge in the number of XDR-TB and MDR-TB 
patients 
who will be treated and cured under WHO guidelines.

It also underscores the urgency with which basic tuberculosis control and 
investment in crucial areas – such as bolstering diagnostic laboratories, 
increasing infection control and surveillance and stepping up funding for 
research – are needed.

“XDR-TB is a threat to the security and stability of global health,” said 
WHO 
Director-General Margaret Chan. “This response plan identifies costs, 
milestones 
and priorities for health services that will continue to have an impact beyond 
its two-year time line.”

The plan, called the Global MDR-TB and XDR-TB Response Plan 2007-2008, also 
jumpstarts efforts towards reaching a 2015 goal of providing access to drugs 
and 
testing to all patients affected by these two disease types, potentially 
rescuing the lives of 1.2 million people.

XDR-TB first came to the worldÂ’s attention in March 2006 when researchers 
reported that emerging global threat posed by highly-resistant strains of the 
disease, and six months later, there was a spate of cases resulting in over 50 
deaths of “virtually untreatable” cases in an area of South Africa with a 
high 
prevalence of HIV.

Meanwhile, last month, an air passenger from the United States infected with 
XDR-TB heightened concerns about the tuberculosis epidemic.

“We have sounded the alarm on the potential for an untreatable XDR-TB 
epidemic,” 
said Mario Raviglione, Director of the WHO Stop TB Department. “Today we 
issue 
our response on behalf of all patients and communities whose lives are most at 
risk.”

The initiative is an ambitious one and must be “fully supported if we are to 
keep a stranglehold on drug-resistant TB,” he added.

A key element of the scheme is a steady supply of quality drugs to treat 
tuberculosis in underserved countries from the Global Drug Facility, which, 
since its establishment in 2006, distributes more anti-tuberculosis drugs free 
of charge to poor countries than any other group.
  2007-06-21 00:00:00.000


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