International approach

Never received enough attention

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease. It has caused a maximum amount of deaths in a number of countries. Tuberculosis is poverty-related but the anti-tuberculosis struggle is still not a priority in many places. A very small amount of all development aid goes to fighting tuberculosis.

The tuberculosis paradox

The paradox is that efficient treatment does exist. This treatment is affordable and will cure more than 95% of patients. To cure infectious patients is the best way to protect a community from infection and disease. Even so, up to two million individuals die from tuberculosis each year.

The Cost versus Efficiency

Health economists at the World Bank estimate that combating tuberculosis through the Directly Observed Treatment Strategy is the most attractive public health intervention in terms of cost-efficiency terms. No other intervention enables to save so many human lives for each dollar invested.

International actions

The WHO declared tuberculosis a world emergency in 1993. The organisation recommended applying the Directly Observed Treatment Strategy to combat the scourge. A great number of non-governmental and governmental organisations rallied to create the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership. They engaged in facilitating access to the DOTS programme to as many TB patients as possible. The organisations' medium-term goal was to use DOTS to care for at least 70% of new infectious cases and to heal at least 85%. The goal was to halve the number of patients dying from tuberculosis until 2015. The manner in which this was to be attained is mentioned in the Global Plan to Stop TB. The Damien Foundation participates in the anti-tuberculosis partnership.