As tuberculosis Epidemics accelerate the United States and abroad in the midst of deep cuts in the financing of local, state and international public health programs, a resurgence of deadliest infectious diseases – including drug resistant tuberculosis – could be on the horizon.
The increase in financing of public health responses could end tuberculosis (TB), says James Brookes, a Idaho computer specialist, who said that to his representatives in Congress Wednesday.
Unlike many defenders, Brookes has no personal relationship with tuberculosis. No one he knows got it, and it was not in mind until recently.
But he followed John GreenThe eminent vlogger and author, and his brother, Hank, on social networks for almost two decades now. When Green created a group called TBFIGHTERS, Brookes joined; After Green, as well as Health’s non -profit partners, asked volunteers to go to Washington DC, to participate in a TB Hill day, Brookes reserved flights and a hotel.
“I’m looking for a way to help any way. I can help here. I can do it,” said Brookes. “We are a world community, and how the least of us is in the world has an impact on the way the best of us is.”
About 250 TBFIGHTERS met in Washington this week to learn more about the progress of tuberculosis, treatment and prevention tests and to attend a total of 210 meetings with senators, representatives and legislative aid representing 49 Capitol Hill.
The organizers were amazed by the answer. Last year, only 35 defenders attended a handful of TB Hill day meetings.
Tuberculosis has long undergone a public relations problem. Despite impressive progress in treatments and progress towards effective vaccines, it was only defended by a few dedicated people in the field.
But John GreenAs close to a celebrity as the authors can get it, want to change this.
“We know how to live in a world without tuberculosis, and that means, in the end, that we choose to live in a world with tuberculosis,” he told TBFIGHTERS on Tuesday-an underlying argument for his new book, The bestseller, everything is tuberculosis. “But you all make a different choice. And this is my great encouragement.”
Although there is an effective remedy for tuberculosis, developed in the 1950s, he persisted. He is now known as a disease of poverty that tends to hit the most harshly among people living with HIV or malnutrition and those who have unstable or crowded housing.
“We should have eliminated this scourge decades ago,” said Green.
Kate O’Brien, a television producer, became a defender of tuberculosis after contracting the disease in New York when she was pregnant with her son. She still doesn’t know how she got it.
“I really believe, really that the elimination of this disease is possible,” said O’Brien. “It’s just a little damn money.”
Recent reductions in public health efforts – including The American Agency for International Development (USAID), the American centers for the control and prevention of diseases (CDC) and local departments and local health – may have reduced progress on tuberculosis by years or decades.
Nick Enrich, a former USAID assistant administrator, estimated in an agency memo projection of an increase of 28 to 32% of tuberculosis cases around the world, including drug resistant tuberculosis, which becomes more risk because people cannot access care.
“We are examining a world where, in two years, 2 million people will die of tuberculosis, instead of 1.25 million,” said Green. “It gets worse, not better, and I really hate, really when we have the ability to do something better and let it get worse.”
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For its part, Green and the TBFIGHTERs were a recent success push To reduce the prices of the drug, Bedaquiline and diagnostic tests.
“I mobilized them, but they also mobilized me,” said Green. They developed a 100 -page document on how to respond to the crisis. “I think most people probably did not know tuberculosis, but when they became aware of it, they became very angry, like me.”
Like Green, Brookes found more he learned about tuberculosis, the more it is important to fight to ensure everyone’s safety.
“It is the number one infectious disease currently and throughout history, and the only thing that prevents us from eradicating it is logistics? Let’s finish tuberculosis and let’s start working on the most difficult things,” said Brookes.
Before this week, he participated in local activism; Her daughter suffers from cerebral paralysis and autism. He hopes that the skills he has acquired will result in more advocacy for people with disabilities.
“I didn’t know how easy it was to reach out to my senators and say to me:” Hey, can we have a meeting? ” And they just say “yes”? He said, with disbelief.
From her daughter, Brookes said: “It is a piece of a wider image for us just to learn to defend and make a better world for her. The more health results are for our community and for the world, the more protected it is.”
Brookes was nervous when he entered the American Senate and the house of buildings, wearing a costume and a pin that read “TB is not over”.
The meetings went well that he expected. He now follows with partners in Health To send more information to the members of the Congress.
“In many ways, this trip is only the start,” he said.