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October 2010

White House advisor and WHO official discuss need for new TB tools

October 29, 2010 -- In a new blog post on the Center for Global Health Policy’s “Science Speaks” blog, Ezekiel Emanuel—special advisor for health policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget—discusses the challenges of addressing tuberculosis (TB) in Ethiopia after touring a hospital in Addis Ababa, the capitol. According to Emanuel, currently available TB drugs are “tough to take, tough to stay on. That poses its own challenge, even if they are free. ... We are also facing patients who are co-infected with HIV, and they may not be in stable condition, and you pile problem upon problem upon them, and the challenge is enormous.” Emanuel added that there is a need for improved TB diagnostics. “Another major issue is we need to have better diagnostic tools for TB, better microscopy,” he said, adding, “They have fluorescent microscopy to allow for more accurate diagnosis. But it’s not only about getting the diagnosis. You have to think about getting a sputum sample from a health center in a rural area to a laboratory, and this can be an enormous task.”

In response to Emanuel’s post, Mario Raviglione—the World Health Organization’s Director of the Stop TB Department—says that research for new TB drugs and diagnostics is urgently needed. “Research is essential now,” Raviglione said, adding, “The achievements in this decade have been so major. However, we are just at the start of the response. We are still using old tools. Now with the new diagnostics, we are at the verge of a new era in terms of dealing with” multi-drug resistant TB “But right now the way we have to treat people with MDR-TB takes two years. We need new drugs desperately. We need to open new investments for research and development. Let’s not get discouraged about fighting MDR-TB. It’s very important to face it head on. We can do it, we can fight it effectively. I’m sure of it.” See the links below for more details.

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