Gates Foundation funding test of new tuberculosis drug
Jul 23, 2014, 11:05 AM | Updated: 11:05 am
This July 30, 2009 photo shows X-rays from a tuberculosis patient. King County has about 120 new cases of TB each year. While most recover, nurse Mary Tuncil says they go to great lengths to treat each patient and control the spread of the disease. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
A drug-resistant form of the infectious disease tuberculosis is expanding worldwide and it also poses a threat here in the Seattle area.
The World Health Organization is recording about 500,000 new drug-resistant TB cases each year. Health officials in Seattle are paying attention.
“Over 85 percent of all TB cases are born outside of the U.S.,” said Dr. Masa Narita, TB control officer for Public Health King County, where tuberculosis is considered contained. But when containment is lost, there have been multiple outbreaks here, said Narita.
Health experts consider the defense against tuberculosis precarious because of the rise in drug-resistant strains worldwide and the difficulty in treating TB.
King County has about 120 new cases of TB each year. While most recover, nurse Mary Tuncil says they go to great lengths to treat each patient and control the spread of the disease.
“We try to make sure we find all the people that could have been exposed to that person, make sure those people get screened for TB. If they are infected, we make sure that they get the preventive treatment so that they don’t then get it and spread it to others.”
Tuberculosis is a bacteria that usually attacks the lungs. Although it’s not spread easily (it’s harder to catch than a cold), it’s particularly difficult to treat because it’s so labor intensive, according to the Public Health King County website. Medications are usually given in-person by a health care provider because if treatment is interrupted, patients have a greater chance of developing a drug-resistant form of TB, which is more deadly.
Treatment involves multiple antibiotics, taken several times a week for six months to a year. Keeping patients on the regimen is crucial.
“People do die from this and so I say, look: ‘you’re so ill right now, if you don’t finish this treatment, it will happen again and then your family members could become ill like you,'” said Tuncil.
King County has about 120 new TB cases each year and Public Health King County is treating one case of multi-drug-resistant TB right now.
Worldwide, two million people die of TB each year. But help might be on the way. Results of an international study of a new drug combination are promising. Dr. Peter Small is with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, which is funding a phase three study of PaMZ.
“I’m super excited about PaMZ,” said Small. “Within five years of launching the phase three trial, we will know if this is going to be able to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of people with drug-resistant TB.”
While standard TB treatment can last up to a year, or longer, multiple drug-resistant forms of TB can require 18-24 months of treatment, ingesting of 12,000 pills and daily injections at a cost of more than half-a-million dollars, according to health experts. A single case could demolish a local health department’s budget. Some advocates are calling for national funding of tuberculosis control, which could cost an estimated $1.3 billion over the next ten years.
The World Health Organization says that just more than half of all patients with drug resistant TB complete a full course of treatment because of the duration and side effects. The new therapy is cheaper and safer and could produce a cure for drug-resistant TB in as little as four months of treatment.
