Drug Resistant TB is a Growing, Deadly Threat
The TB Alliance is working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO), the Stop TB Partnership and health experts to address the deadly, global public health threat posed by the growing emergence of extremely drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), especially among those co-infected with TB and HIV.
A WHO Global Task Force on XDR-TB has made recommendations to combat XDR-TB, which include the need to accelerate development of new drugs.
Drug-resistant TB has emerged as an increasing threat to TB control, escalating the need for new treatment options. A study published earlier this year, conducted by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, documented the increasing number of cases of tuberculosis that are extremely or extensively resistant to current drug treatments. XDR-TB has been identified in all regions of the world.
In late August, concerns about the emergence of XDR-TB were heightened by reports and studies from South Africa's the KwaZulu-Natal province. The reports showed high death rates in HIV-positive people with XDR-TB.
The news has led to warnings that XDR-TB could seriously threaten the considerable progress being made on TB control in many countries, as well as affect moves towards universal access to HIV treatment.
The TB Alliance has, from its inception, been committed to helping solve the problem of drug resistant TB. The XDR-TB threat serves as a wake up call, highlighting the critical need to increase the funding for research and development of new tools to better control TB.
Current TB treatments, designed in the 1960s, take at least six months to cure. Non-compliance has led to the emergence of multi- and extremely drug resistant strains that defy today’s available treatments.
Drug resistant TB is the man-made result of interrupted, erratic or inadequate TB therapy, and will continue to pose a threat until faster and easier-to-use treatments become available and are adopted for use.
The mission of the TB Alliance is to lead the discovery and/or development of affordable, new anti-TB drugs that will shorten treatment, be effective against multi-drug resistant strains, treat HIV-TB co-infection, and improve treatment of latent infection.
All drug candidates in our growing, diverse pipeline share two critical features in their design: the ability to treat drug-resistant disease by attacking novel targets, and the ability to be administered safely in conjunction with anti-retroviral treatments for the 12 million HIV-infected TB patients around the world.
The WHO has announced plans for a multi-day session early next year on the issues posed by XDR-TB regarding research and development of new TB tools, including new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines.
The TB Alliance is working actively with the WHO and members of the WHO XDR-TB Task Force to reinforce the importance of the longer term solution: develop new novel treatments that will be effective against drug-resistant strains, and which offer faster treatment times. This should minimize incomplete treatment, and lead to increased patient compliance, helping to reduce or eliminate the problem of drug-resistant TB.