News
HST Collects relevant news from a variety of sources, for your convenience and thus has no control over the content of these news articles. Select a story from below, or use our search feature to find stories of interest.

Multi-million dollar TB facility opens in Cape Town
SAPA
2001-02-09

The Global Alliance (GA) for TB Drug Development, which is carrying out research into the development of a more effective yet affordable cure for tuberculosis, officially opened its office in Cape Town on Monday.

The Global Alliance (GA) for TB Drug Development, which is carrying out research into the development of a more effective yet affordable cure for tuberculosis, officially opened its office in Cape Town on Monday. 

The GA was set up in October last year as a partnership between international governments, non-governmental organisations, academia, foundations and industry. It has established three offices: one in New York, which deals with administration; one in Brussels, responsible for advocacy and fund-raising; and one in Cape Town, housed on the premises of the Medical Research Council (MRC) in Parow. The GA is seeking a TB treatment that is shorter than existing ones, effective against drug-resistant strains, and accessible to the people who need it most. Global funding for this public-private partnership is expected to exceed US150-million, it said in a statement on Friday. The Cape Town office - the city has one of the highest incidences of the disease in the world - will co-ordinate the activities of a coalition of stakeholders in countries worst affected by the disease. 

The GA said two key components of its drug-development process were large-scale clinical trials and a rapid transfer of new technology to populations, which stood to benefit most.  It hoped, through the development of cost-effective new drugs, to:  

• Reduce the duration of TB treatment
• Improve the treatment of latent TB infection
• Be effective against multi-drug resistant TB.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported last year that a small but alarming percentage of people worldwide had a form of TB that was resistant to the usual treatments and needed to be fought with stronger, more expensive drugs to prevent a health crisis.  WHO estimates that if more countries do not correctly treat the disease, more than one billion people will be newly infected - and 35-million will die - in the next two decades. About four percent of patients being treated have the multi-drug resistant form of the disease. 
(Source: SAPA, 05/02/01)

Keywords	This Item is associated with the Following Keywords: .
You Can Comment on this Item, or View other people's Comments
Easy Print  Email to a friend

	Related News
	SA to lead world research team (2001-02-01) New TB Therapy May Halve Treatment Time (2005-10-21) HIV strains show increased resistance to drugs (2001-02-09) Mpumalanga close to being declared TB hot spot (2005-02-18) Surveillance in KZN (2006-09-06)

	Related Publications
	Delivering Antiretroviral therapy in Resource-constrained Settings: lessons from Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda (2005-08-31) Improving the Management of patients with Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in the Lower Orange District and Northern Cape Province (2001-07-18) Scaling up antiretroviral therapy in resource-limited settings: Treatment guidelines for a public health approach (2004-03-31) TB Control in the Lower Orange District: Northern Cape - Technical Report10 (2000-06-19) Introducing Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) on a Large Scale: Hope and Caution (2004-03-31)

	Related Health Statistics
	Primary drug of abuse as % of all drugs of abuse (2007-05-21) Number of admissions for alcohol and other drug abuse (2007-05-21) Percentage provider knowledge of correct drug treatment of STI syndromes (2004-05-14) Human development index (2004-02-09) Human development index rank (2004-02-09)

	Related Events
	International HIV/AIDS Treatment Education and Advocacy Summit (2000-03-13) International Conference on HIV/AIDS, Food and Nutrition Security (2005-04-14) 11th ISfTeH International Conference (2006-11-26) 24th African Health Sciences Congress (2003-09-28) Developing Sustainable African Health Care Delivery Systems for the Millennium (2002-10-01)

	Related links
	SANCA: South African Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines Pharmaceutical Management Information System (PharMIS) Medicines for Malaria Venture United States Pharmacopeia Drug Quality and Information

	Related Content
	Funders of HST (2004-04-06) Contact Details (2004-03-10) Summary Bulletin 8 - DHS-LG Discussion List (2004-07-16) Summary Bulletin 4 - DHS-LG Discussion List (2004-07-16) The Southern African Development Community Project on Sexually Transmitted Infections in High Transmission Areas (2005-09-21)