Good News for TB patients- only 4 months

Tuberculosis still claims a vast number of people of Nepal especially in remote villages. Here is a good news for the people infected with TB. Moxifloxacin seem to work like another wonder drug for M. tuberculosis. Tuberculosis previously only the disease of poor and develping countries has now become prevalent in developed countries like USA, Europe too due to introduction of HIV/AIDS.

New antibiotic may shorten tuberculosis treatment time, studies indicate. The AP (9/19, Marchione) reports, "Adding the antibiotic moxifloxacin to the usual TB drugs shortened the time to cure to an estimated four months in a study in Brazil," according to research presented by Johns Hopkins University scientists at the American Society for Microbiology conference in Chicago.

The AP continues, "The Brazil study involved about 170 men and women in Rio de Janeiro who had active TB. All were given three standard anti-TB drugs plus either moxifloxacin or an older drug, ethambutol." The researchers found that two months later, "85 percent of those on moxifloxacin tested negative for the infection compared to 68 percent on ethambutol." The research team also noted that the "treatment advantage showed up in as little as two weeks." In addition, "A second study by Hopkins researchers cured mice of TB in 10 weeks instead of the usual six months with moxifloxacin plus the TB drug rifapentine at higher doses." The second research group plans to conduct a study of 2,400 patients later on this year.

AHN (9/19, Sharma) adds, "Moxifloxacin currently sells under brand name Avelox in the United States for short-term use against pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses." It "costs $10 a day, but researchers said its manufacturer Bayer AG now plans to reduce the prices in developing countries if it receives...federal approval." According to World Health Organization estimates, approximately "1.6 million people died from TB in 2005." Most people infected with TB are asympotomatic, and only about one in 10 will develop active TB.

Texas jury awards settlement to seven people exposed to tuberculosis .

The AP (9/21) reports, "A jury [in Texas] ordered a bus company to pay $5.25 million to six high-school band members and a chaperone who contracted tuberculosis from a bus driver." The jury made the award after Garcia Holiday Tours and the driver, 58-year-old Raul Garcia, were found guilty "on one count each of negligence."

Neglected Diseases

Excerpted from "Donors pledge $10 bln to Global Fund to fight disease." By Madeline Chambers. Reuters. September 27, 2007--Donor countries promised nearly $10 billion to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria over the next three years at a (recent) meeting. Campaigners said the pledges were welcome but fell short of the long-term needs of the multilateral Fund, which provides resources for projects to fight the three diseases it says claim 6 million lives a year. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the total amount pledged for 2008-2010 was $9.7 billion. He said the total included "conservative" projections from the United States, Canada and Japan, prevented from making commitments for more than one year due to budgetary processes.

The Fund says it has saved 2 million lives since it was created in 2002 through partnerships with governments, the private sector and local communities. Under Germany's presidency this year, the Group of Eight industrialized nations committed to a $6-$8 billion a year replenishment of the Fund by 2010. The Fund was promised a trebling of resources to expand its programs, but got enough only for existing projects. Most pledges came from Europe, with one of the biggest from France. But countries from other regions, including China and South Korea also made promises, as did the private sector. Germany, Europe's biggest economy, pledged 600 million euros ($850 million) over the three years and Britain promised 1 billion pounds ($2 billion) up to 2015. That included 360 million pounds for 2008-2010, a commitment activists denounced as being half the amount previously pledged.

The Fund also launched an initiative for rich nations to write off debts for developing countries who promise to give a share of the total to the Fund.



Medical Officer for the Bureau for Global Health, USAID/Washington and CMDA Trustee Board Member Clydette Powell, MD, MPH:

"More than one billion people – mostly in the developing world – suffer from one or more neglected tropical diseases (NTD). While relatively unheard of in developed countries, diseases like lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, onchocerciasis and soil-transmitted helminths, cause disability, reduce mobility, contribute to childhood malnutrition and can lead to blindness and severe disfigurement.

Affected individuals often face stigmatization and abuse, further contributing to social and economic marginalization. In September 2006, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) awarded RTI International the $100 million Neglected Tropical Diseases Control Project, with the goal of delivering treatment to 40 million people over five years.

"In contrast to NTD, both TB and malaria have received more funding and attention in recent years and are no longer considered neglected diseases. Thanks to the US Congress, USAID funding helps support work in prevention and control of both malaria and TB in developing countries. Launched by President Bush in June 2002, The Presidential Malaria Initiative awarded $1.2 billion over five years for work in 15 high malaria burden countries in Africa. In addition, malaria receives about one-third of the GFATM budget (Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria). The World Bank Booster Program gives $500 million in funding for malaria projects around the world.

The Gates Foundation is the largest private sector donor for work in malaria. Similarly, US government funding and global attention have been given to TB, in large part through the Stop TB Partnership, the World Health Organization, and the GFATM, all of which USAID funding helps to support. This work is complemented by U! SAID-support to the Global TB Drug Facility (and the Green Light Committee), The Global TB Drug Alliance, and TBCTA and TBCAP partners, all of which help to address TB among the two billion people infected with the mycobacteria."