Source: United States Senator for Ohio Sherrod Brown
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) along with Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Ed Markey (D-MA) recently reintroduced the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act, which would give public health officials the necessary tools to eliminate tuberculosis (TB) in the United States. This bill would reauthorize the National Strategy for Combating and Eliminating TB, as well as authorize the use of grants to help state health departments focus on TB in high-risk populations and encourage interagency coordination in identifying novel tools and therapeutics for TB control. Representatives Ami Bera (D-CA-7) and Don Young (R-AK-At-Large) will introduce companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
“Tuberculosis kills more than 1.4 million people each year, and I’ve seen firsthand how challenging treatment can be, especially for those with drug-resistant forms of the disease,” said Brown. “Although there has been a global reduction in TB-related deaths since 1990, more than 4,000 people continue to die from TB every day, and the COVID-19 pandemic has severely hampered our progress in our effort to eliminate TB. Eradicating this disease requires not only additional focus and collaboration, but additional resources, and this legislation would do just that. This is a critical step toward eradicating tuberculosis in the U.S.”
“For decades, public health programs across the country focused primarily on controlling the spread of tuberculosis (TB) from a person sick with disease to their close contacts. Passage of the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act (CTEA), and the emphasis on a TB prevention initiative, could rectify decades of underfunding and help set TB programs on a path toward eliminating a disease that – while often forgotten – has infected about 4 percent of Americans. In Ohio alone, that represents nearly 500,000 untreated infections,” said Donna Wegener, Executive Director of National Tuberculosis Controllers Association.
In 2020, the Ohio Department of Health reported 130 cases of TB in Ohio, where 11 cases were drug resistant and two cases were multi-drug resistant.
In 2021, Brown introduced a bipartisan resolution to recognize and support World Tuberculosis Day, reaffirming the Senate’s commitment to strengthening U.S. leadership and effectiveness in ending the global TB epidemic. Brown has also led his colleagues in efforts to increase U.S. investment in the prevention and treatment of TB both globally and domestically, as part of the FY 2022 appropriations process.
In 2018, Brown joined Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) in leading a bipartisan group of Senators in urging then President Trump to commit to meaningful U.S. engagement during the United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) High-Level Meeting on TB. The Senators said committing to not only sustained but expanded investment in the fight against this infectious disease is what’s needed to defeat TB in the US and around the world. The UNGA High-Level Meeting resulted in a commitment to ending TB by 2030, with heads of state and government agreeing to mobilize billions of dollars to take action against drug-resistant forms of the disease and end the epidemic.
After a rise in Tuberculosis cases in Ohio in 2016, Brown joined public health officials in Columbus in calling for full funding of efforts to eliminate the deadly disease. Brown’s efforts led then President Obama to announce the Administration’s National Action Plan for combating MDR-TB. The plan layed out a comprehensive strategy to both mobilize political will and seek additional financial and in-kind commitments from public health, private-sector partners, and governments of all affected countries. Brown led several of his Senate colleagues in urging the President to fully fund this plan, including funds for federal TB programs.
In 2008, legislation authored by Brown to make key investments to combat the threat of domestic TB by establishing a grant program to help state and local governments and federal health centers fund prevention and treatment efforts was signed into law. The Comprehensive TB Elimination Act builds on this work and would give public health officials the necessary tools to eliminate TB in the United States.
The bill is endorsed by the American Thoracic Society, Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, The Global Alliance for Tuberculosis Drug Development (TB Alliance), Harvard Medical School Center for Global Health Delivery, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), National Tuberculosis Controllers Association, RESULTS, Treatment Action Group, Tuberculosis Roundtable, and We Are TB.
You can see the full text of the legislation HERE.
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