GROUPS MEET TO ADDRESS DRUG-RESISTANT TB

Health experts held a meeting yesterday in Johannesburg, South Africa, to address the spread of extreme drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB). The South African Medical Research Council, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention held the meeting following an outbreak of XDR-TB in South Africa.

The groups called for the further acceleration of research and development of new drugs to replace the current 40-year-old regimen of treatment. New anti-TB drugs are required to treat XDR-TB patients, and the groups urged further investment by governments around the world to ensure an adequate number of new drugs are in the pipeline and in clinical trials.

Health experts stressed that the real danger is that HIV infection will speed the spread of XDR-TB into a truly global epidemic. The virulent form is already spreading across Southern Africa and has been found in other countries.

The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates and Rockefeller foundations and the UK, Dutch, Irish and U.S. governments, has nine TB treatments in its pipeline. The alliance's goal is to create new drugs that dramatically reduce treatment time, improve adherence and curtail the incidence of drug-resistant strains of TB. The first of these drugs could be ready by 2010, according to the group.