FACT SHEET: Obama Administration Releases National Action Plan for Combating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis
The White House
December 22, 2015
Today, the White House released a comprehensive plan that identifies critical actions to be taken by key Federal departments and agencies to combat the global rise of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). The National Action Plan for Combating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis (hereafter referred to as the National Action Plan), developed by an interagency working group in response to Executive Order 13676: Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, identifies a set of targeted interventions that address the core domestic and global challenges posed by MDR-TB and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB). The recommended interventions represent the U.S. Government’s contributions to reversing the worldwide spread of MDR-TB and can help inform policy development processes around the world. The National Action Plan is an effort to articulate a comprehensive strategy, and to mobilize political will and additional financial and in-kind commitments from bilateral and multilateral donor partners, private-sector partners, and governments of all affected countries…

The National Action Plan is organized around three goals that aim to strengthen health-care services, public health, and academic and industrial research through collaborative action by the U.S. Government in partnership with other nations, organizations, and individuals:

Goal 1: Strengthen Domestic Capacity to Combat MDR-TB.
Each year in the United States, around 100 individuals are diagnosed with MDR-TB and health authorities must follow up with every patient to ensure appropriate treatment and to determine if others have been infected and require treatment or preventive services. Goal 1 activities will help prevent TB drug resistance by ensuring that all patients with TB disease are promptly detected and treated, and that people who have been in close contact with infectious TB patients are identified, monitored, and if necessary, treated. Although any transmission of TB is of public health importance, an outbreak sparked by an individual with undiagnosed MDR-TB or XDR-TB could have serious consequences due to the difficulty and costs associated with treating patients infected with these resistant strains.

Goal 2: Improve International Capacity and Collaboration to Combat MDR-TB.
The emergence of MDR-TB and XDR-TB not only results in significant loss of human life and economic damage, but has the potential to impede progress in mitigating the devastating effects of TB. Goal 2 describes efforts the United States will take to address the global threat of MDR-TB through strategic investments to broaden access to diagnosis and treatment by engaging providers from both the public and private sectors in the most affected communities, improving innovative health technologies and patient-centered approaches to care, and advancing diagnostic and treatment options.

Goal 3: Accelerate Basic and Applied Research and Development to Combat MDR-TB.
New products and innovations for the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of TB are needed to accelerate control of TB and MDR-TB at home and abroad. Goal 3 activities will help with the development of rapid tests to diagnose TB and determine susceptibility to available drugs; novel therapies and drug regimens that could cure TB and MDR-TB within weeks, making it easier for patients to complete therapy and decreasing opportunities for the emergence of drug resistance; and new vaccines with the potential to prevent all forms of TB…

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AERAS [to 2 January 2016]
http://www.aeras.org/pressreleases
Aeras Applauds White House’s National Action Plan on Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis
Plan Points to the Importance of TB Vaccine R&D
Rockville, MD, December 22, 2015 – The White House plan to address drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB), The National Action Plan for Combating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis, released today, is an important step in the U.S. government’s response to this deadly infectious disease…

“Treating MDR- and XDR-TB is expensive, takes years of therapy, and can cause serious side effects, including deafness, liver failure and psychosis, and has much higher failure rates,” said Ann Ginsberg, Aeras Chief Medical Officer. “Drug-resistant TB is an emerging threat to public health.”…

The National Action Plan includes a wide array of provisions aimed at putting in place programs to provide better diagnosis and treatment throughout the world. “It’s particularly important that the Plan acknowledges the need to fund R&D for improved TB drugs and diagnostics, and specifically points to the critical need for a new, effective vaccine, which could prevent all forms of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB,” said Dr. Ginsberg. “We urge the U.S. government to take action today by investing in TB R&D, including new TB vaccines, which are crucial to rid the world of TB.”