Page 47 - MemoriaES-Eng

www.ciberes.org

Tuberculosis

NEW RESEARCH AND INNOVATION ON TUBERCULOSIS: BASIC
Coordinator
RESEARCH, PREVENTION, DRUG REGIMENS AND DIAGNOSIS.
Dr. Vicente Ausina
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global health problem. Each year, there are around

nine million new cases of TB, and close to two million deaths. All countries are

affected, but 85% of cases occur in Africa (30%) and Asia (55%), while India and
China alone represent 35% . TB is closely connected with HIV. People living with

HIV, represent over 10% of annual TB cases, and are up to 37 times more likely

to develop TB than people who are HIV-negative.

Yet TB is, in most instances, a curable disease. More than 90% of people with
drug-susceptible TB can be cured in six months using combinations of first-line

drugs. Treatment of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is more challenging, re-
quiring the use of second-line drugs that are more costly, cause more severe

side-effects, and must be taken for up two years. Cure rates for MDR-TB are

lower, typically ranging from 50% to 70%

In 2006, the Stop TB Partnership launched the “Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-
2015”, a roadmap for scaling up prevention and treatment, for research and

development, and for financing. By 2015, it is expected that we will have: point-

of-care tests than can be used in health centres for diagnosing active TB, diagnos-
ing latent TB infection and predicting the risk of progression to TB disease, and

detecting drug resistance; a new, four-month TB treatment regimen for patients
with drug-susceptible TB; at least one new drug on the marked for treatment of

drug-resistant TB; a safer, higher-efficacy regimen for the treatment of latent TB

infection; four new TB vaccine candidates in Phase III clinical trials for safety and
efficacy. If no improvements in TB control are made, about 10 million people will

die from TB by 2015.

This research programme is the result of evolution from previous versions of 13
20
Corporate Research Programme on Tuberculosis since CIBERES consortium was T
established in 2006. Some topics on the programme coincide with those OR
P
listed in the “The Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-15”.
RE
L
A
NU
N
A
1. Basic research. New approaches to the nature of latent tuberculosis in- S /
Aims and fection (LTBI) and its treatment in experimental models.
E
ER
objectives
B
LTBI affects one third of humanity, with the lack of clinical symptoms, in which CI
case it may go unnoticed. However, approximately 10% of these cases develop

into active disease. The main problem is lack of understanding of the un-
47
derlying mechanisms of the infection and the evolution of the active dis-