From left: Dr Jeremiah Chakaya, Dr Paula Fujiwara, Dr Muyabala Munachitombwe-Muna and Dr Frank Bonsu
The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) has announced the development of a new tuberculosis treatment model aimed at reducing the duration of treatment for the disease.
Dr Paula Fujiwara, The Union’s Scientific Director, who disclosed this to the media, stated that the new regime which she labelled the ‘3-P Project’, would help treat and eventually eliminate tuberculosis and other lung diseases in the next couple of years.
“We have developed, in conjunction with partners, a new model for researching and developing an entirely new TB treatment regime and this is called the ‘3-P Project’,” Dr Fujiwara explained.
She said the ‘3-P Project’ contains three elements – Push, Pull and Pool which has one of its primary goals to be the reduction of the length of a TB regimen to only one month long – a significant reduction from current treatment options that range from six months to two years.
“And what this means is that we are pushing – we are going to push funding through grants so that pharmaceutical companies will say, this is something I want to do – I want to develop a new drug. Pull meaning that we are going to give out rewards to people or organizations that have actually reached their R&D objectives and finally, pool, meaning that the pharmaceutical companies can work together to develop new regiments. Tuberculosis needs more than one drug, we need regimens,” Dr Fujiwara explained.
20th Conference of the Union
She was speaking at the media briefing session at the 20th conference of The Union, Africa region in Accra, where doctors, nurses and others in the healthcare field have come together to share solutions on lung diseases – primarily tuberculosis – in the African region.
The three-day conference, themed ‘accelerating implementation through partnership to end TB, HIV/TB, tobacco and other related NCDs’, holds a symbolic value as the first conference of The Union Africa region.
The Union’s President, Dr Jeremiah Chakaya, said this year’s conference – which will play host to more than 600 registrants – and The Union itself will focus primarily on the solutions to the problems of tuberculosis and other lung diseases and not the problems themselves.
“We will mainly be focusing on not the problems but the solutions to those problems,” Dr Chakaya explained.
The Union is an international non-governmental organisation dedicated to preventing, treating and eradicating lung diseases, including tuberculosis, HIV/TB, bronchial asthma and COPD around the world. The organisation was founded in 1920 in Africa and now operates in more than 90 countries.
TB Burden
Dr Frank Bonsu, the conference chair and head of the National Tuberculosis Control Programme, Ghana, mentioned that globally 10.4m TB cases were estimated in 2015 but only six million of them were identified and reported.
He said that Africa’s 1.3 million reported TB diagnosis is disproportionately high, accounting for 21 percent of the world’s cases but only 13 percent of the world’s population.
This, he explained, is due to factors, including prevalence of HIV combined with Africa, having the largest population living below the poverty line.
Bringing home the figures, Dr Bonsu said about 15,000 new TB cases are recorded annually out of the 44,000 suspected cases in Ghana, a situation he attributes to the technology used in the past to detect TB.
“This means that four out of every 10 TB cases are missed and the mortality is seven out of every 100 TB cases in Ghana,” he said.
Dr Bonsu was hopeful that with the introduction of the new technology, GeneExpert, the missed TB cases will be identified for treatment.
Dr Muyabala Munachitombwe-Muna, President, The Union, Africa region, called on the media to be at the forefront of efforts to eliminate TB by 2035.
He said issues of stigmatisation can be addressed if the media begins changing the perception of people about the disease and focus more on prevention and awareness creation about TB, much like outreach efforts surrounding HIV.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri & Austin Hicks