Obstacles
There has been significant progress in global TB control, but, further progress is hindered by the inability to quickly and accurately identify TB patients and provide them with treatment. By the time most TB patients are correctly diagnosed, they have already infected many other people. Their delayed treatment also puts them at risk of increased suffering or even death. The most commonly used TB diagnostic technique is more than 100 years old and misses half of TB cases. So, to interrupt this cycle of transmission, we urgently need new, more effective diagnostics that ensure that patients quickly receive the care they need. Dr Gyanu Lamichhane of the Johns Hopkins Center for Tuberculosis Research feels that air-borne nature of the pathogen makes it resource-intensive to start a research lab or project to study the disease. Professor Paul Herrling, chairman of the board of Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases, Singapore, feels that the need to do several combination tests and the long duration of the treatment are the main hindrances in treating TB.

Furthermore, the rate of development of new drugs for TB is extremely sluggish. While it takes more than a decade to come up with a new drug for TB, it takes only a few months for the TB bacilli to adopt to the drug. Also, since the monetary return in TB is limited as compared to other other diseases, pharmaceutical companies remaining apprehensive while investing in the. Dr Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary, Stop TB Partnership, believes that providing universal access to TB care, including modernizing diagnostic laboratories and adopting revolutionary TB tests; and filling the research gaps in order to bring rapid TB tests, faster treatments and a fully effective vaccine to market would slash global TB deaths in half by 2015.

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Also Read: TB Interviews by leaders in the field
Mr Mohit Malhotra - MD and head of country operations, Sandoz India
Dr Koen Andries - distinguished research fellow, Tibotec
Dr Peter Small - senior program officer for TB, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Dr Mel Spigelman - director, R&D, TB Alliance
Dr Nalin Mehta - senior communications manager, The Global Fund, and joint editor, SAHC