Fifty years ago, researchers came up with a very inexpensive cure for tuberculosis. Yet, more people worldwide will die of the infectious disease this year than ever before.
Tuberculosis kills 2 million people every year and is the world's leading curable infectious killer. Worse yet, tuberculosis has mutated into deadly, drug-resistant strains, which threaten to overwhelm fragile economies and inadequate health systems.
World health is at a critical crossroads. TB must be fought on a global basis to control its spread and halt deadly drug-resistant strains from arising. For humanitarian, economic and global health reasons, the United States needs to be a full partner in this effort.
Americans must abandon the notion that tuberculosis is a Third World disease. True, infection rates are far greater in developing nations, but people are traveling worldwide more than ever, which renders them susceptible to infection.
National borders are no obstacle to the spread of TB. As recently as the 1990s, New York City fought back an epidemic of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, which cost nearly $1 billion to control. Drug-resistant strains of the disease can cost some $250,000 per patient to treat in the United States.
Earlier this week, the World Health Organization launched a campaign to improve access to life-saving tuberculosis treatments in developing countries over the next five years. On Saturday, World TB Day, a new Global TB Drug Facility will be established. The primary goal of the facility is to provide ongoing treatment of TB by dispensing high-quality drugs to 10 million patients in the hardest-hit countries.
According to the WHO, a year of treatment costs as little as $20 per patient, but drug shortages are commonplace in part because of a lack of funding. Without treatment, 70 percent of people with tuberculosis will die. Not finishing a course of drugs is one of the main causes behind the increase of multi-drug resistant TB, which threatens to make TB untreatable in the future.
The global tuberculosis epidemic increased 6 percent between 1997 and 1999, largely because of a steep rise in infections in African countries where the HIV/AIDS epidemic has lowered resistance. TB is the leading cause of death among people who are HIV positive, accounting for one third of all AIDS deaths.
Because TB knows no borders, it must be addressed on a global basis. That is one of the aims of the proposed federal Stop TB Now Act, introduced in the House of Representatives on March 19. The legislation also would support research targeted at eliminating TB in the United States. This proposal deserves thoughtful consideration.
At a time when a proven and inexpensive treatment is available, world leaders must join efforts to stem an epidemic that is completely avoidable.
Consider the words of Dr. J.W. Lee of the WHO Department to Stop TB: "Future generations will no doubt ask us why we continued to allow 2 million people to die from a disease that can be cured with drugs that cost only $10 to $15. They will rightly question our commitment, our priorities, our sense of justice and our understanding of human rights."