[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4] [Senate] [Page 4887] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]WORLD TUBERCULOSIS DAY Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I wish today to recognize World Tuberculosis Day. It is a day that allows us to take stock of how far we have come, and how far we have to go, in the fight against this deadly disease. Claiming about 1.8 million lives each year, TB is a vicious killer that must be stopped in order to protect the global public health. Today we recognize not only that we must do more, but that, with the technology, medical expertise, and a worldwide commitment, we can do more. We have waged an aggressive campaign to eliminate TB in the U.S. However, progress toward TB elimination has slackened. Anywhere from 9 to 14 million Americans are infected with latent TB. Without treatment, about 5 to 10 percent of them will develop active TB. As the global pandemic of drug resistant TB spreads, the disease poses an imminent public health threat to the United States. According to the World Health Organization, 5 percent of all new TB cases are drug resistant, with estimates of up to 28 percent in some parts of Russia. Of these cases, it is estimated that only 7 percent are being treated. Over the past decade, the U.S. has had more than 83 cases of an extremely drug resistant strain of TB, known as XDR-TB, which is very difficult and expensive to treat. Because XDR-TB recognizes no borders, these cases will continue to rise unless we adopt control measures on a global scale. As it stands, drug resistant and extremely drug resistant forms of TB are not easily transmittable; however, should an easily transmittable strain arise, we face the real possibility of a deadly pandemic in our country and across the globe. TB control is not just an imperative for the developing world; it is an imperative for every nation on this planet. Our current drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines are out of date and increasingly inadequate to control the spread of TB. The TB vaccine, for instance, provides some protection to children, but provides little to no help to prevent TB in adults. In addition, the most commonly used TB diagnostic in the world, sputum microscopy, is more than 100 years old and lacks sensitivity to detect TB in most HIV/AIDS patients and in children. Finally, the course of treatment available today is simply too long, resulting in skipped doses and the development of resistant strains. New TB drug regimens are long overdue, and Congress must act to help accelerate the development, approval, and delivery of new TB medicines around the globe. We must bring our methods of prevention and treatment into the 21st century so we can fight the new age of the TB epidemic. Congress has made significant strides toward this goal. The enactment of the Lantos-Hyde Act and the Comprehensive TB Elimination Act reaffirmed our commitment to research, treatment, and prevention. These laws put the U.S. on the path to successfully treating 4.5 million TB patients and 90,000 new multidrug resistant TB cases by 2013. However, Congress and this administration must not underfund the commitment we made with this legislation. World Tuberculosis Day provides an opportunity to reflect on the progress made to eradicate TB, acknowledge the millions of lives this disease takes as it orphans children and destabilizes communities throughout the world, and recommit to fighting TB with the sense of urgency and level of resources this global public health battle requires. ____________________