Tubrculosis updates
In celebration of World TB Day, we are delighted to introduce the following special Topics in Focus. Please also see the FIRS press release and WHO report.
selected from articles recently published in Respirology.
The Topics in Focus editors are: Dr Chi Chiu Leung, Dr Cynthia Chee and Dr Ying Zhang
The 2013 tuberculosis (TB) review series 'Tuberculosis: Current state of knowledge' highlighted important gaps in our existing knowledge on the complex interactions between the pathogen and the host. It also detailed major limitations in current control strategies. Since then, there have been major developments in new diagnostic tools and drugs/regimens for TB and latent TB infection (LTBI), some of which have modified clinical practice in both high- and low-burden countries. In 2014 the World Health Assembly approved the 'End TB Strategy' which set ambitious targets to achieve a 95% reduction in TB death and 90% reduction in TB incidence rate by 2035. To consolidate developments and to meet the upcoming challenges, we have invited a panel of international experts to critically re-examine the relevant issues in a new series of themed reviews focused on TB. Read more...
| Tuberculosis updates 2018: Innovations and developments to end TB |
| Tuberculosis vaccines: Opportunities and challenges |
| Update on tuberculosis biomarkers: From correlates of risk, to correlates of active disease and of cure from disease |
| Epidemiological, clinical and mechanistic perspectives of tuberculosis in older people |
| Drug-resistant tuberculosis: An update on disease burden, diagnosis and treatment |
| Where is tuberculosis transmission happening? Insights from the literature, new tools to study transmission and implications for the elimination of tuberculosis |
| Implementing the End TB Strategy in the Western Pacific Region: Translating vision into reality |
| Latent tuberculosis infection: Opportunities and challenges |
| New drugs and regimens for tuberculosis |
| Drug resistance mechanisms and drug susceptibility testing for tuberculosis |
| Applying new tools to control tuberculosis |
FIRS press release and WHO report
Acceleration of UN High-Level Meeting Commitments on TB Focus of International Respiratory Societies
On World TB Day, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) urges governments to leverage the success of the first-ever United Nation (UN) High-Level Meeting (HLM) on the fight against tuberculosis (TB), held in 2018. The meeting produced a UN political declaration on TB and endorsement at the highest level to take the necessary steps to end the TB epidemic.
TB is preventable and curable, yet it remains the world's most common infectious disease killer. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 10 million people fell ill from TB in 2017 and 1.6 million people died. Only 64 percent of the estimated 10 million global TB cases were actually diagnosed and notified. In 2017, approximately 558,000 people developed TB that was resistant to rifampicin (RR-TB), and of these, 82 percent had multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). Only one in four people who needed treatment for MDR/RR-TB in 2017 actually received it.
For the first time the High-Level Meeting brought together heads of state to give the leadership that is urgently needed to address this terrible disease. This unique opportunity and momentum must not be lost.
FIRS is calling on leaders to follow through on the commitments they have made, including to:
- Successfully treat 40 million people for TB, including 3.5 million children and 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB.
- Provide TB preventive therapy to 30 million people, including four million children under the age of five.
- Include child TB in the child survival agenda and provide family-based TB care.
- Advance all areas of innovation needed to deliver new tools for TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
- Support a human rights-based approach to global TB.
- Mobilise U.S. $13 billion annually for TB care, and U.S. $2 billion annually for TB research and development.
FIRS urges the TB community to hold leaders accountable for their commitments, and to push governments to support the changes needed to realise the UN Sustainable Development Goal of ending the TB epidemic by 2030.
Dean E Schraufnagel, MD, executive director, FIRS, said: "If we are to truly see an end to TB, the world's most common and deadly infectious disease, governments must commit to scale up of research, funding, human rights and accountability. It is our job as the TB community to strive for the commitments we've seen from our leaders to become action and not just promises."
By adopting the UN political declaration on TB, national leaders have said they recognise TB as a threat they are committed to eradicating. They have agreed to specific actions. The day to begin implementing this new agenda begins now.
Notes: All quoted TB statistics are from the Global Tuberculosis Report 2018, The World Health Organization
For more information about FIRS please contact Lisa Roscoe lisa.roscoe@firsnet.org.
