Turning the tide against tuberculosis.
Despite affecting men, women, and children for millennia, tuberculosis (TB) is the most neglected disease. In contrast, the global response to HIV has reached a defining moment. By uniting efforts, promptly integrating major scientific findings for both treatment and prevention, and scaling up services, the once inconceivable end to the HIV epidemic may no longer be an illusion. "The world has made defeating AIDS a top priority. This is a blessing. But TB remains ignored" - Nelson Mandela. While there is no doubt that revolutionary diagnostics and new and repurposed drugs have provided some hope in the fight against TB, it is evident that scientific advances on their own are inadequate to achieve the World Health Organization's ambitious goal to end TB by 2035. In this article, the consequences of a myopic and conventional biomedical approach to TB, which has ultimately permeated to the level of individual patient care, are highlighted.
South African Medical Research Council HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit, CAPRISA, Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X7, Congella 4013, South Africa. Electronic address: nesri.padayatchi@caprisa.org.
Nesri
N
Padayatchi
South African Medical Research Council HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit, CAPRISA, Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X7, Congella 4013, South Africa.
Naressa
N
Naidu
Yale University School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, USA; Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Gerald
G
Friedland
South African Medical Research Council HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit, CAPRISA, Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X7, Congella 4013, South Africa.
Kasavan
K
Naidoo
Department of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Francesca
F
Conradie
South African Medical Research Council HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit, CAPRISA, Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X7, Congella 4013, South Africa.
Kogieleum
K
Naidoo
South African Medical Research Council HIV-TB Pathogenesis and Treatment Research Unit, CAPRISA, Doris Duke Medical Research Institute, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Private Bag X7, Congella 4013, South Africa; Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Division of Pulmonary Allergy and Critical Care Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
Max Roe
MR
O'Donnell
D000328:Adult; D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D035843:Biomedical Research; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012109:Research Support as Topic; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014944:World Health Organization
D000995:Antitubercular Agents
HIV; MDR-TB; Tuberculosis; XDR-TB