I noted with interest and concern the recent news that new, highly resistant strains of tuberculosis threaten populations around the world, particularly in Eastern Europe (5% of TB Cases Don't React to Some Drugs). A day earlier, the AP reported findings that "drug-resistant tuberculosis is spreading even faster than medical experts had feared." (WHO Says Drug-Resistant TB Spreads Fast) Is it only a matter of time until these cutting-edge strains find their way ashore the US? Actually, these wildcat threats are already here and more are just a transatlantic plane ride away.
For a glimmer of hope, elsewhere this week came news of innovation in treating bacterial infections (Synthetic bacteria-fighting organisms win Lemelson-MIT prize), thanks to an intrepid as well as incentivized 27-year old student from MIT who won a prize for devising a method for cultivating a new type of virus called a bacteriophage that would directly attack tuberculosis and other bacteria.
Readers of all these articles might conclude that the best hope against TB globally is wellsprings of wisdom such as MIT research contests. However, a "eureka" moment of discovery is only the beginning of the equation. The real promise in fully developing safe and effective treatments and even cures for killing diseases comes true with natural economic incentives to industry offered by the only two somewhat free markets that survive worldwide - the US and New Zealand. The health systems of all other countries want either patented drugs at little to no premium or no patent protections on pharmaceuticals at all.
Advantage TB, and lots of other killing diseases.
New strains are here with more en route. Seems TB is discovering a more hospitable environment for growth worldwide than pharmaceutical researchers and their employers.
-John Seng, Founder and President
