{"id":27611,"date":"2018-10-23T15:04:12","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T09:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=27611"},"modified":"2018-10-23T15:04:12","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T09:34:12","slug":"ending-tb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/ending-tb\/","title":{"rendered":"Ending TB"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/ending-tb\/article24887223.ece\">Ending TB<\/a><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><u>News: <\/u><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>U.N. will conduct the first-ever high-level meeting (HLM) on tuberculosis (TB) on 23rd september 2018, under the theme \u201cUnited to end tuberculosis: An urgent global response to a global epidemic\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><strong><u>2. Important facts:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>World Health Organisation( WHO)\u2019s adopted \u201cEnd TB Strategy\u201d in 2014 aims to eliminate TB worldwide by 2035.<\/li>\n<li>Elimination of TB mean that there should be less than one case of TB for a population of 10 lakh by 2025 and 95% reduction by 2035 in the number of TB deaths \u00a0and to ensure that no family is burdened with catastrophic expenses due to TB according to the WHO.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0United Nation &#8216;Political Declaration&#8217; would galvanise the investment and action to meet this global target to eliminating TB.<\/li>\n<li>The UN declaration would also be focused sustaining and encouraging innovation against TB.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>3.\u00a0 <u>About tuberculosis (TB)<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Tuberculosis is the leading global infectious disease killer, surpassing even HIV\/AIDS.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It is airborne and caused by bacterium named M. tuberculosis .<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WHO reports that TB kills 1.7 million people each year and disproportionally affects poverty-stricken people.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>4. <u>Reasons for the prevalence of TB epidemic<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Inequitable access to quality diagnosis and treatment.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lack of understanding of many basic issues including the pathogenesis and natural history of TB.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Inadequate biomarkers and \u00a0other diagnostics that identify individuals at highest risk of progression to disease.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Longer timelines for trials of TB vaccines and inadequate study of drug-drug interactions .<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The drugs used to treat TB, especially multidrug-resistant-TB, are decades old and<strong> can <\/strong>cause debilitating and potentially even fatal side effects ON PATIENTS.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Access is suboptimal for new diagnostic technologies such as GeneXpert and new drugs such as bedaquiline.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Incorrect drug usage and leaving TB treatment in between lead to its wide prevalence.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The research in the social determinants of health indicates that factors such as undernutrition, smoking, and diabetes are major driving forces behind the TB epidemic.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Lack of private sector participation and engagement where at least 50% cases are repo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>5. Contentious issues in the \u00a0upcoming UN meeting on TB<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Exerting full rights by nations under <strong>TRIPS agreement <\/strong>to have accessible and generic version of TB drugs would remain a major issue during the meeting.<\/li>\n<li>The aggressive push by several countries backed by big pharma lobbies regarding cost of TB drugs (affordability) \u00a0may lead to re-negotiations by developing nations.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0The issue of \u2018de-linkage\u2019, to separate the R&amp;D costs from financial gains may be debated.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>6. India&#8217;s case with TB<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>According to the Global TB Report 2017 released by WHO, India has the highest number of TB cases in the world and accounts for one fifth of the world\u2019s TB burden.<\/li>\n<li><strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The Indian government recently announced National Strategic Plan (NSP) to eliminate TB by 2025, well ahead of global targets.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It intends to increase access to improved diagnostics and treatment support, engage with the private sector and strengthen the healthcare system and TB surveillance .<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0India has also fought to retain its status as a maker and distributor of generic medicines, thereby protecting the right to health of people in developing countries.<\/li>\n<li><strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Indian patent law contains important provisions that help protect and promote public health goals \u2014 for example, by overcoming bids by big pharma to evergreen patents of old drugs, through compulsorily licensing for certain drugs.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0By permitting pre- and post-grant opposition to patents to challenge unfair parenting practices by big pharma.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>7. Measures to end TB epidemic worldwide<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Introduce new diagnostic technology and newer anti-TB drugs.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Rapid and effective private sector participation.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0&#8220;The Break the Stigma campaign\u201d and \u00a0\u201cZero TB Cities challenge\u201d to raise awareness globally.\u00b7<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0Encourage research to identify biomarkers to diagnose individuals with recent infection and at highest risk of progression to disease.<\/li>\n<li>Vaccine trials need to be expedited and injectable antibiotics, needs to be replaced with oral medicines like bedaquiline and diagnostics like GeneXpert test\u00b7<\/li>\n<li><strong> \u00a0<\/strong>Encourage the pharmaceutical industry to develop new innovations for the disease.<\/li>\n<li><strong> \u00a0<\/strong>Generic versions of TB \u00a0vaccines need to be promoted in low-income countries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>8. This UN-HLM delivers <strong>Sustainable Development Goal 3<\/strong>, which seeks to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all.<\/p>\n<p>9. However a balanced approach is \u00a0needed on patented drugs because if drug makers are unable to make returns on their investment, they may be deterred from developing the next generation of therapies that are urgently needed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ending TB News: U.N. will conduct the first-ever high-level meeting (HLM) on tuberculosis (TB) on 23rd september 2018, under the theme \u201cUnited to end tuberculosis: An urgent global response to a global epidemic\u201d. 2. Important facts: World Health Organisation( WHO)\u2019s adopted \u201cEnd TB Strategy\u201d in 2014 aims to eliminate TB worldwide by 2035. Elimination of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/ending-tb\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Ending TB<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704925299},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27611\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}