EU Leaders Urge Funding of Critically-needed New Tools against Drug-resistant Tuberculosis - TB Alliance, TuBerculosis Vaccine Initiative and Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung High-Level Meeting

BRUSSELS, May 15, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Participants at high-level meeting seek to end TB health threat in Europe  

Leaders from the governments of France and the Netherlands today urged funding for new treatment and prevention tools against drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) at a high-level meeting in Brussels, citing the scope of the problem in Europe.

"Because of drug resistance, TB is evolving to become an untreatable disease for a growing number of people," said Michèle Boccoz, Special Ambassador for fighting against HIV/AIDS and communicable diseases at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development. "Investment in research and development now will allow us to have the drugs and vaccines at hand to eventually end the threat of TB as a health problem in Europe."

While TB rates in the European Union (EU) are relatively low, the disease persists in every country. And, according to the World Health Organization, the WHO European region as a whole has the highest rates of drug-resistant TB in the world. Nine of the world's top 30 countries with the highest burden of drug-resistant TB are in eastern European and central Asian countries. The WHO says around 73,000 people in the region are estimated to fall ill with multidrug-resistant TB every year.

"Without tools such as new drugs and vaccines, we know we cannot reach our goals for controlling TB," said Marja Esveld, senior policy advisor, global health from the Dutch Ministry of Health. "Now is the time to step up the resources to ensure we have the means to effectively end the epidemic and address the emerging threat of drug-resistant TB."

The AMR Review, a global study of antibiotic resistance data, estimated that, by 2050, drug-resistant TB will be responsible for an additional 2.1 million deaths in Europe at an economic cost of $1.1 trillion. Globally, drug-resistant TB now kills 200,000 people annually, but by 2050, that number could approach 2.5 million.

TB is now the world's deadliest infectious disease, resulting in 1.8 million deaths in 2015. The economic funding for TB research and development globally, however, has remained flat for the past five years. The WHO estimates that more than $1 billion is needed annually, and an additional $1.7 billion is needed for TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment services.