On October 23rd, at the 36th World Congress on Lung Health in Paris, a group of individuals and organizations from communities affected by TB presented a Statement to address the worldwide TB pandemic. The Statement, entitled "Towards a Revolution in Tuberculosis (TB) Prevention, Care and Treatment," was signed by over 100 individuals and organizations, and calls for "massively accelerated research to develop new and better tools."
The Statement urges that the following measures be taken in relation to R&D for new tools:
Scale up research on new tools to stop TB. Massively accelerated and greatly increased research funding is needed for new tools to prevent, diagnose, treat, and cure TB. Funding for this research should come from all countries from both public and private sectors. Community activism is needed to secure full funding of and community involvement in all stages of this research.
Develop shorter TB cures. New drugs and combination treatment regimens for TB are urgently needed which will fully cure over 95% of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant cases of TB within two months. These drugs must be affordable, available, safe, and effective especially for persons infected with MDR-TB or TB/HIV.