Devex: New tools, old problems: TB funding gap persists
“Several new technologies are in the pipeline to diagnose and treat tuberculosis, including a promising vaccine that could prevent people with latent TB infection from developing the disease, according to the World Health Organization’s latest report. … Funding for TB research and development in 2017 reached $772 million, but well below the target $2 billion annually that member states agreed to at the U.N. high-level meeting on TB in 2018…” (Ravelo, 10/18).

U.N. News: Tuberculosis Infections Declining, But Not Fast Enough Among Poor, Marginalized: U.N. Health Agency
“A staggering 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis (TB) last year, the U.N. health agency said on Thursday, in an appeal for far greater funding and political support to eradicate the curable and preventable disease. … [A]lthough the 2018 TB toll was marginally better than in 2017, the burden remains stubbornly high among poor and marginalized populations, particularly those with HIV. One of the reasons for this is the cost of TB care, with data showing that up to four-fifths of TB patients in so-called ‘high-burden’ countries spend more than 20 percent of their household income on treatment. Drug resistance remains another obstacle, WHO maintained…” (10/17).

Additional coverage of the WHO’s TB report is available from CIDRAP News, SciDev.Net, and Science Speaks.