Hundreds of thousands of cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) can be prevented and as many as 134,000 lives saved through the implementation of a two-year $2.15 billion response plan to contain drug-resistant TB, just launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Stop TB Partnership.
The plan emphasizes the urgent need to boost basic TB control and target investment in key areas, including: strengthening programs to treat drug- resistant TB; building capacity in diagnostic laboratories; expanding infection control and surveillance; and funding research into new and improved diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.
The plan reinforces the mission of the TB Alliance, a founding member of the Stop TB Partnership, to develop new TB drugs that will shorten treatment, be effective against susceptible and resistant strains, be compatible with antiretroviral therapies for those HIV-TB patients currently on such therapies, and improve treatment of latent infection.