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World TB Day 2022: Invest to End TB. Save Lives
Each year on 24 March, World TB Day is commemorated to raise awareness of this devastating and deadly disease.
The theme for this year’s World TB Day is “Invest to End TB. Save Lives”, conveying the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments to end TB made by global leaders.
Despite significant progress in recent years, TB continues to be among the leading causes of death worldwide, claiming the lives of 1.5 million people per year. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed years of global progress in tackling TB, and multidrug-resistant TB – the largest concern in the control of antimicrobial resistance globally – could put at risk the gains made over the last few decades.
TB is preventable and curable, with the right treatments and sufficient resources, it is possible to stop its spread. However, to reach the ambitious targets of 95% death reduction and 90% incidence decline set by the World Health Organization in its global strategy to end TB[1], more investment in TB-related activities is urgently needed.
OUR CONTRIBUTION
UNITE4TB is proud to be playing its part, helping to deliver novel phase 2 clinical trials that will accelerate the development of new anti-TB drugs and regimens. Achieving this goal will facilitate fulfillment of one of the main unmet needs in the TB field: well-tolerated drug regimens of shorter duration that can be deployed to tackle TB across various drug-resistant patterns and comorbidities.
Martin Boeree, UNITE4TB Project Coordinator (Radboud University Medical Centre)We’re proud to be contributing to the fight to end TB by enabling the progression of new, safe, and affordable treatment solutions for TB patients worldwide.
Prof Michael Hoelscher, UNITE4TB Scientific Lead (LMU University Hospital Munich)In the UNITE4TB project, for the first time in the history of TB drug research, all manufacturers with drugs in phase 2 are working together to develop novel regimens. This will enable faster delivery of much-needed combination therapies.
JOINT EFFORT
What can you do to help? Raise awareness of TB, stimulate government representatives to act, encourage friends and families to get tested. Together we can accelerate efforts to end the global TB epidemic.
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[1] Implementing the end TB strategy: the essentials. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2015