Tuberculosis research meeting in Bahia.

For the past three years Bahia has the opportunity to sponsor the Tuberculosis Research Meeting in Bahia. These meetings are responses to the need of increasing the quantity and quality of research in tuberculosis. In this last meeting Dr. Christian Lienhardt from the WHO tuberculosis program presented impressive and convincing figures of the impossibility of eliminating tuberculosis without a tripod: new vaccine strategy (preventing new infections), new drug therapy (to treat diseased and infected) and diagnostic tools (to target those who need quickly and efficiently). They are coming; this is my optimistic view for the human intelligence. An example of these efforts was the release of the first drug against resistant tuberculosis approved (Bedaquiline) in December 2012 by the FDA after more than 50 years waiting. There are several more in the second and third clinical trial phases of the research pipeline. Good news! Tuberculosis numbers are falling. “The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target to halt and reverse the TB epidemic by 2015 has already been achieved. New cases of TB have been falling for several years and fell at a rate of 2.2% between 2010 and 2011” says the 2012’s Global Report of Tuberculosis from the World Health Organization, most impressing is also the number of collaborators of the Report, it takes four pages, this is truly collaboration! This is truly a coordinated effort to eliminate this plague. Numbers are falling but we are still not quite there. This is the meaning of the tuberculosis research