Devex: Working to close the TB diagnostics and treatment gap
Wim Parys, head of research and development at Janssen’s global public health group, and Claudia Denkinger, head of the tuberculosis and hepatitis program at FIND

“…[H]ow can it be that TB remains one of the world’s biggest health threats, ranking as the number one cause of death from infectious disease worldwide? First, efforts to eliminate TB are being thwarted by the alarming spread of multidrug-resistant TB … Secondly … it is the poorest areas of the world that typically bear the brunt of the burden. … It is essential that global health initiatives and practitioners — those with expertise in diagnosis and treatment — collaborate and deliver a truly sustainable and scalable impact among underserved populations battling TB and MDR-TB. We fully embrace the post-2015 TB agenda, which has a new ambition to reduce TB deaths by 95 percent by 2035 and cut new cases by 90 percent. To achieve these ambitious goals it is imperative that global health and development practitioners collaborate to modernize and scale up TB diagnosis and care, to deliver a continuum of access from prevention to cure” (2/22).