Nearly 2 million people die from TB each year, and the incidence is increasing. In 1999, 8 million people had the disease, and by last year 8.4 million were sick. Unfortunately, more than 90% of TB patients live in developing countries that have few resources for treating them, and that is the reason behind a new comprehensive global campaign aimed at treating 45 million tuberculosis patients during the next decade.
Canada was the first country to ante up when Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) kick-started funding for the Global TB Drug Facility with a $15-million contribution this spring. The money is already being used to treat patients in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.
(Despite the contribution, critics say Canada's foreign-aid record is far from exemplary. We contribute 0.26% of our GDP to foreign aid, a far cry from the 0.7% pledged by the Liberals in 1993.)
The new facility, which is housed by WHO and managed by the Stop TB (www.stoptb.org/) partnership of the 20 nations that are hit hardest by the disease, needs at least US$50 million a year for the next 5 years to provide drugs to 10 million patients.
Currently, the WHO-sponsored DOTS (directly observed treatment, short course) program reaches just 23% of people with TB. Its limited success is due mainly to drug shortages, even though a 6- to 8-month course of treatment costs as little as US$10. With the new cash, Stop TB hopes to reduce the burden of TB (deaths and prevalence) by 50% (compared with 2000 levels) by 2010. CIDA says investment in the new facility is not just a humanitarian responsibility for developed nations. “Microbes know no borders,” says Ernest Loevinsohn, director general of CIDA's Food Aid Centre. “We have to work overseas to protect Canadian health as well.”
Signature
Barbara Sibbald
CMAJ