In honor of World TB Day on March 24, the AmericanThoracic Society (ATS) held a briefing in the House of Representatives that featured a very moving presentation by a young American man, Max Woodliff, who was infected with multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis while traveling in Central Asia in 2008. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), congressional sponsor of the briefing, thanked Mr. Woodliff for his courage in coming to DC to speak publicly about his experience on the harsh MDR-TB regimen, and said his story points to the urgent need for new TB drugs. Mr. Woodliff, who compared some of the TB antibiotics to chemotherapy, echoed this point by directly appealing for more research on TB "so that fewer people have to go through what I have been through." The briefing panel was moderated by Phil Lobue, MD, from the CDC Division of TB Elimination, who gave an overview of new national data that shows a significant decline in TB in the U.S. The panel's other speakers included Diana Weil, Policy Coordinator for the World Health Organization, who gave an overview of the new WHO TB surveillance report, ATS member Randall Reves, MD, who presented the new Stop TB USA TB Elimination Plan, and Ann Ginsberg, Medical Officer with the TB Alliance, who discussed the organization's work developing new TB drugs, including the new Critical Path Initiative with the FDA and pharmaceutical companies.
|
