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DR-TB drugs under the microscope 2019 | Technical Report / Policy Brief | MSF Science Portal
Technical Report
|Policy Brief

DR-TB drugs under the microscope 2019

MSF Access Campaign
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Abstract

Drug resistance is a major public health crisis thwarting the effective treatment and care of people living with tuberculosis (TB) – the world’s leading infectious disease killer. Declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014 and again in 2017, drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) affected an estimated half million people in 2018 yet only 1 in 3 started treatment.

Until recently, the standard DR-TB treatment regimens recommended by WHO – and still in use by many countries – have a high pill burden, long treatment duration (up to two years), painful daily injections, severe side effects and poor treatment outcomes. These regimens cured only 56% of people with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), and 39% of people with extensively drug- resistant TB (XDR-TB).

In March 2019, WHO released new DR-TB treatment guidelines, recommending more effective and easier-to-take all- oral drug regimens. In July 2019, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for countries to transition to all-oral DR-TB regimens by World TB Day, 24 March 2020. By this time, 100% of people newly enrolled on treatment should be offered these optimal regimens.

This Issue Brief examines the current landscape of DR-TB drug pricing and access policies, and what needs to be done by governments, policymakers and health care providers to get these lifesaving medicines to the people who need them most.

Subject Area

antibiotic resistancetuberculosisantimicrobial resistanceaccess to health care

Collections

The endTB project

Languages

English
Published Date
19 Nov 2019