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. 2017 May 2:6:e25956.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.25956.

Tuberculosis innovations mean little if they cannot save lives

Madhukar Pai  1   2 , Jennifer Furin  3
Affiliations

Tuberculosis innovations mean little if they cannot save lives

Madhukar Pai et al. Elife. .

Abstract

The past decade has seen the emergence of new diagnostics and drugs for tuberculosis, a disease that kills over 1.8 million people each year. However, these new tools are yet to reach scale, and access remains a major challenge for patients in low and middle income countries. Urgent action is needed if we are committed to ending the TB epidemic. This means raising the level of ambition, embracing innovation, increasing financial investments, addressing implementation gaps, and ensuring that new technologies reach those who need them to survive. Otherwise, the promise of innovative technologies will never be realized.

Keywords: diagnostics; drugs; epidemiology; global health; infectious disease; microbiology; tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

MP: No industry or financial conflicts. MP is a consultant for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). BMGF had no involvement this manuscript. MP is an eLife Reviewing Editor.

The other author declares that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.. Cumulative number of GeneXpert instrument modules and Xpert MTB/RIF cartridges procured under concessional pricing since 2010.
As of 31 December 2016, a total of 6,659 GeneXpert instruments (comprising 29,865 modules) and 23,140,350 Xpert MTB/RIF cartridges had been procured in the public sector in 130 of the 145 countries eligible for concessional pricing. Source: Cepheid & WHO (World Health Organization, 2017a). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25956.002
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Progress in bedaquiline (BDQ) and delamanid (DLM) global uptake by month compared with estimated need (goal).
Source: DR-TB STAT (DR-TB STAT, 2017). DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.25956.003
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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