Press Release
Smith Chairs Hearing on Preventing Tuberculosis in S. AfricaOn Thursday, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) and an expert panel of global health experts discussed the deadly spread of Tuberculosis in Southern Africa, and what more the U.S. can do to help prevent and treat the spread of this disease. “This brutal, contagious disease killed 1.7 million people in 2016, the most recent data available – making it the deadliest infectious disease in the world – killing more than both HIV/AIDS and malaria combined,” Rep. Smith, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, stated in his opening remarks at a hearing of the subcommittee on “Combating Tuberculosis in Southern Africa.” “TB is devastating for many people globally, but it impacts the people of Africa – especially southern Africa – disproportionately,” Chairman Smith said. (To read Chairman Smith’s full opening statement, click here) Witnesses from the State Department, the Centers for Disease Control, and USAID all testified about what more the U.S. can do to intervene and prevent the spread of the disease. “Infectious disease threats do not respect borders, so a disease threat anywhere is a threat everywhere,” Dr. Rebecca Martin, Director of the Center for Global Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stated in her testimony before the Subcommittee. “Like other infectious threats, TB (and especially drug-resistant TB) jeopardizes the health, security, and prosperity of America and our partners.” (To read Dr. Martin’s full testimony, click here) “With correct application of sufficient resources, the fight against TB/HIV is a battle we can win,” said Hon. Deborah L. Birx, M.D., the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator and the U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy at the State Department, in her testimony before the Subcommittee. “We must make a commitment to finding and treating all persons with HIV before they have immune impairment and get clinically sick, and we must find and effectively treat all persons with TB disease – we simply cannot afford not to.” (To read Ambassador-at-Large Birx’s full testimony, click here.) Irene Koek, Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Global Health Bureau at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said that “USAID remains committed to ending TB. Administrator Mark Green has declared TB, ‘a fight we can win’ and has actively engaged to bring greater attention and resources to the issue.” (To read Koek’s full testimony, click here) Tuberculosis is the deadliest infectious disease in the world, but in sub-Saharan Africa it is especially deadly. In 2016 44 percent of all TB deaths in the world occurred in Africa and 72 Africans per 100,000 infected with TB died, compared with 35 per 100,000 in Southeast Asia and 13 per 100,000 in the Eastern Mediterranean. While most TB cases are curable with a proper diagnosis and treatment regimen, drug-resistant strains—Multiple Drug-Resistant (MDR) and Extensively Drug-Resistant (XDR) TB—pose a special threat if patients are not properly treated. Conditions in the South African mining sector also pose a risk with exposure to silica dust, crowded living conditions, a poor migrant population that regularly crosses borders and has limited access to proper care, and high HIV prevalence. Smith noted that U.S. funding for combatting TB increased by $20 million from 2017 to 2018 and was $82 million higher than the Administration’s request. However, if international funding to prevent TB is not increased, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates a $7.4 million budget shortfall. “We must encourage our international partners to step up to this challenge, and take the opportunity of the U.N. General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending TB this September to do so; but even more, we must explore more innovative and holistic approaches to eliminating this disease,” Smith stated. “We must work from a regional perspective and increase coordination among health systems; we must pay special attention to the mines in South Africa; we must redouble our efforts to diagnose and treat every person infected with TB; and we must pull out all the stops when it comes to preventing MDR and XDR TB infections,” Smith said. |