Lawmakers Urge White House to Close Gaps in TB Prevention, Treatment

A bipartisan group of lawmakers urged the White House to push for action to prevent, treat and ultimately eradicate tuberculosis at an upcoming United Nations meeting.

In a letter last week, more than 100 congressional members warned that even though the TB case rate in the U.S. has dipped to 2.9 cases per 100,000, the country is not on track to eradicate the disease as planned by 2100.

It will take careful coordination to wipe out TB so the U.S. delegation to the Sept. 26 meeting “should include high-level federal officials, representatives from cities and states with high TB burdens, TB programmers, health care providers, representatives from civil society, and Americans affected by TB,” the letter says.