Gates foundation blog examines challenges to global TB response

"[O]ver the past month, [tuberculosis (TB)] has captured high-profile attention from the Washington Post, the New York Times, TIME, NPR, [Agence France-Presse] and other major media, generating big headlines about the rising challenge we face in tackling one of humanity's oldest and most resilient infectious diseases," Jan Gheuens, interim director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's TB Program, writes in the foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog. "Why should we be concerned?" he asks. Gheuens says because the worldwide number of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) cases is growing; "it costs a lot of money to treat MDR-TB"; and "MDR-TB patients must go through two years of intensive treatment, including daily injections for the first six months." He concludes, "What's clear now, more than ever, is that making progress on TB will require a comprehensive approach that includes new and better approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and prevention" (9/6).