International researchers led by Professor Ali Zumla highlighted a huge undiagnosed burden of tuberculosis.
In two sentinel papers in The Lancet journals the researchers have called for investment into proactive screening and into research into shorter, more effective treatments to reduce the burden of multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis.
In an autopsy study of adult inpatients at University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia published in Lancet Infectious Diseases, the researchers found that tuberculosis was the commonest cause of death and that a huge load of tuberculosis and multi-drug resistant TB was missed ante-mortem and only diagnosed at autopsy.
These data suggest that current global estimates of TB by the WHO at 9 million people with active tuberculosis in 2013 and 1.5 million people dying of it are ‘underestimates’ and the investigators call for a high degree of clinical awareness for diagnosing tuberculosis, and for increased governmental investments into health services for more proactive screening for tuberculosis. Commenting on the study, Australian scientists said the results of the autopsy study were ‘timely and important’ and the data could unlock further investments into health services.
In a paper on TB treatment and management, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, Professor Ali Zumla and international collaborators said treatment success rates of MDR and XDR tuberculosis were unacceptably low and the development of new, more effective tuberculosis drugs and adjunct host-directed therapies to improve treatment outcomes was urgently required.
They argued that in light of the ‘sparse’ new TB drug pipeline there was an urgent need for more investment to develop new anti-tuberculosis drugs, adjunct therapies and vaccines, coupled with visionary political leadership as “the best chance to change the ‘unacceptable status quo’ of the tuberculosis situation worldwide and the growing problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis.”
Professor Zumla is a Professor of Infectious Diseases and International Health at UCL and a Consultant in Infectious Diseases at UCLH.
To read ‘Tuberculosis treatment and management—an update on treatment regimens, trials, new drugs, and adjunct therapies’ in full click here.
To read ‘Burden of tuberculosis at post mortem in inpatients at a tertiary referral centre in sub-Saharan Africa: a prospective descriptive autopsy study’ in full click here.
