Learn More: Fighting Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease that is spread from one person to another through the air. One in three people worldwide are infected with the bacteria that cause TB. Most of these people carry a latent form of the infection, but 14 million people currently have an active form of the disease. Nearly 2 million people die of TB every year. Some consider TB to be a disease of the past, but in fact, it is a leading cause of death in the developing world.

According to the latest surveys, TB is still on the move. The World Health Organization  (WHO) reports that drug-resistant strains of TB are being recorded at their highest rates ever around the globe amid shortages in the funding needed to combat the disease.

We Need New Medical Tools

We need to step up our efforts to fight TB. The current TB vaccine was introduced in the early 1900s, and over time, its effectiveness has greatly diminished. And drugs now used to treat TB often don’t work because of new, drug-resistant strains of the deadly disease.

We need a new vaccine and new drugs, and if we are to stop TB from spiraling out of control, we need them now!

The key to developing new vaccines and drugs is medical research. Unfortunately, research on TB, as well as research on other diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world-such as malaria and tropical diseases-is underfunded. Research funding is far short of what is needed. Because these diseases largely affect people in poorer parts of the world who cannot afford to pay for expensive drugs, many pharmaceutical companies have chosen to ignore them.

NIH and CDC Play a Vital Role

U.S. agencies also conduct research into new drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are the world’s premiere institutions for biomedical research and disease control, respectively. But funding for the life-saving research that these agencies conduct is in jeopardy. Federal funding for NIH and the CDC over the last five years has not allowed them to meet the urgent need for more research, especially given the rapid spread of newly emerging infectious diseases like TB and dengue fever.

By increasing the budget for global health research, we are making an investment in our own health and the world’s health, too.
Every day, more and more Americans realize that global health research is in everyone's interest. Join the movement. 

Resources

Global Health Council

Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative

Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation

TB Alliance

RESULTS

Stop TB Partnership

American Lung Association

American Medical Student Association

Infectious Diseases Society of America

GlobalHealthFacts.org

 

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