Global TB leaders at the 37th Union World Conference on Lung Health on Wednesday announced that US $95 million will be required to address the threat of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in 2007, according to reports reaching the Daily Observer.

At a news conference in Paris, Dr Mario Raviglione, Director of the Stop TB Department of the World Health Organisation (WHO), and other TB and HIV leaders called on governments and funding agencies to provide the resources urgently needed to prevent further occurrence of XDR-TB.

Key to prevention, treatment and control of XDR-TB is strengthening basic TB control everywhere. The urgency of XDR-TB requires a $95 million budget now. Over the next 12 months this will provide: $35 million to strengthen TB control and prevent TB drug resistance through in-country operations, including infection control and laboratory capacity building; $40 million for access to high-quality second-line TB drugs; $15 million for technical assistance in affected countries provided by international agencies; and $5 million for rapid TB diagnostic tests.

The announcement also included plans for the WHO Stop TB Department to collaborate with the Foundation for Innovative and New Diagnostics (FIND) to distribute diagnostic TB test equipment and methodology. This will enable rapid culture and drug susceptibility testing and reduce the time required to confirm a diagnosis of TB drug resistance from as long as 3 months to just 2 weeks.

"With standard tests, many patients — particularly those who are co-infected with HIV — are at risk of dying before their TB drug resistance can be confirmed, so clearly rapid diagnosis is a critical component of our response," said Dr Raviglione.