A pair of scientists recently put out a call for tuberculosis (TB) research to step up its game and achieve the same sort of advances that HIV/AIDS research has reached since its recognition.
Publishing their perspective in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, authors Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Robert Eisinger, special assistant for scientific projects at NIAID, called for new diagnostics to go along with new therapeutic and vaccine approaches to tackling the disease. Approaches that utilize large data sets and modeling to understand complex biological systems could help fill critical knowledge gaps between infection and the disease, the researchers said.
Some people sustain Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) infections that show no signs of disease, while others take ill. As yet, scientists do not know why. Aside from figuring out this mystery, the pair of researchers said that improved diagnostic testing aimed at detecting drug-resistant TB and detecting Mtb are needed. Despite being one of the oldest known human diseases, TB remains the leading infectious cause of death globally and has become increasingly frustrating to doctors for growing multidrug-resistant qualities.
In their paper, Fauci and Eisinger noted several ultimate goals in this research. They want drug combinations administered for shorter time periods which can nevertheless cure those infected with Mtb strains. They also desire more effective vaccines–while recognizing this as one of the most difficult desires for researchers.
They based their assessment on a lecture Fauci delivered at a World Health Organization conference in Moscow last year.