TUBERCULOSIS: The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis: How we can save 5 million lives by 2015

Oct 27th, 2010 Lisa Hendrickson
Each year, there are 9 million new cases of tuberculosis (TB), causing close to 2 million deaths worldwide. In order to address this epidemic, the Stop TB Partnership created the Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015, an action plan and list of required resources needed to halve the number of TB cases and related deaths by 2015. Now at the halfway point, the Stop TB Partnership recently released the Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015, an updated road map that outlines where we were, where we are now, and where we need to go in order to reach our TB goal by 2015.
In terms of where we were and where we are now, it is important to note that a lot of progress has been made since 2006. ONE members have joined in the fight to increase the U.S. commitment to combating TB through mechanisms such as PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. As a result of these efforts, the U.S. has mobilized more than half of its $4 billion pledge promised during the first five years of the plan towards TB research and development.
A global increase in funding has allowed for TB case detection rates to increase to between 55 to 67 percent. This funding has also helped health care providers gain access to a portfolio of new diagnostic tools, as well as allowed for the development of drugs essential to treating the disease.
That being said, a lot still needs to change in order for us to reach our 2015 goal. The report states that if no improvements to the current TB control strategy are made from 2010 onwards, 10 million people will die from TB. Part of the reason that we need to change our current strategy is due to the fact that the face of TB is changing. HIV has thrown a curve-ball into efforts to address the TB epidemic. HIV weakens the immune system, making individuals more susceptible to TB. As a result, the exponential rise in HIV cases—especially across Africa— has caused a considerable increase in TB cases as well. The emergence of drug-resistant strains of TB (frequently referred to as MDR-TB or XDR-TB) has also made addressing the TB epidemic more challenging. The new strategy must directly address both these phenomena, as well as the increase in related drug costs for treatment. A higher profile must also be given to laboratory strengthening and all levels of research.
If fully implemented, the Global Plan to Stop TB could save up to 5 million lives. As ONE members, we need to continue to pressure leaders to make the public health problems affecting the world’s poorest countries a priority, and for their control to be addressed in an integrated fashion.
http://www.one.org/blog/2010/10/27/the-global-plan-to-stop-tuberculosis-how-we-can-save-5-million-lives-by-2015/