Lack of funding halts progress against tuberculosis, the most lethal disease in the world

Also available in: Español

Tuberculosis is a curable infectious disease that, nevertheless, has become since 2014 the deadliest disease in the planet, even ahead of HIV/Aids. Only in 2015 it killed 1.8 million people all over the world and infected 10.4 million more. Approximately 40% of all people affected by this disease are not diagnosed and only 59% of people who need treatment receive it.

The epidemiological situation is so serious that, for the first time in history, the United Nations has convened a high level meeting in 2018 to face the problem of this pandemic, whose eradication is part of the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, agreed on 2015 by all UN countries. However, the global number of new cases only decreases by 15% a year, a failure in terms of public health and human rights, as stated by Stop TB Partnership in its Global Plan Towards Ending TB 2016-2020.

A significant increase of investment is necessary to pave the way towards ending the pandemics in 2030. In 2016, 6.6 billion dollars were invested in low and middle income countries (that host more than 90% of this disease burden), 2 billion Euros below the necessary 8.3 billion, according to the WHO last global report on tuberculosis. During the next five years a total of 56 to 58 billion dollars will be necessary to implement TB programs, preventing 38 million people from getting sick and saving 8 million lives.

“A scale up is fundamental in investment to face the pandemic with proper resources and providing funds to organizations as important as the Global Fund¨, says Vanessa Lopez, director of ¨Salud por Derecho¨. Through its investments, the Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria is one of the main contributors to the reduction of tuberculosis mortality rate by 47% between 1990 and 2015, as it channels around half of global resources against the pandemic.

Spain that was one of the major donors in the last decade, has not donated to the Global Fund since 2011. In November 2016, however, all the parliamentary groups approved unanimously a No Law Proposal (PNL) requesting the government to be a donor to the Fund again with a contribution of 100 million Euros. ¨Since then, there –have been several public commitments from the government to be Global Fund donors again. We hope they will be true and that, as requested by the PNL, the first disbursement in the amount of 30 million takes place in 2017¨.

In addition to the increase in the global response until 2020, at least 9 billion will be necessary for R&D in new tools , and to end the downfall in this field: 2015 was the year when less money was invested -620.6 million dollars- in R&D for tuberculosis since 2008. “This disease is so much related to poverty, and the tools and funding for research and diagnosis development, vaccines or treatment, have been very scarce due to lack of interest from the pharmaceutical industry in its market¨, says Vanessa López.

“In the last 50 years, only two new medications for the most resistant conditions of tuberculosis have been released to the market, contributing to high cure figures and lower side effects, but they are only available to 5% of people who need them. Governments and pharmaceutical companies should make an effort to renew the tools against this pandemic and bring to the market new diagnosis tools, vaccines and shorter, more efficient and less toxic treatments, available at an affordable price for the population that needs them¨.