After half a century of stagnant progress, tuberculosis (TB) treatment has made significant advancements in the last 10 years. Research and development have resulted in new internationally recognised drugs and shorter, safer, and more effective regimens for the treatment of latent, drug-susceptible (DS-TB) and drug-resistant TB (DR-TB).
However, progress on implementation has lagged behind the evidence for shorter TB regimens. The ‘1/4/6 x 24’ campaign, launched by the Treatment Action Group and its allies, calls for the “staff, stuff, space, systems, and support” needed by 2024 to allow every eligible person to access today’s short-course TB regimens.
MSF supports the objectives of the ‘1/4/6 x 24’ campaign and wishes to support the campaign’s call to action. As one of the largest non-governmental providers of TB treatment, MSF has an important role to play in terms of implementation, advocacy, access, and scale up.
In 2021, MSF treated approximately 17,000 patients for TB and 2000 for DR-TB. MSF has also engaged actively in operational research. For example, MSF completed the TB-PRACTECAL trial in August 2022 and continues to conduct the endTB trial – critical clinical trials to identify workable short-course regimens for people with DR-TB.
In this video MSF commits to actions to support the objectives of the ‘1/4/6 x 24’ campaign.
