Australia: Julie Bishop ‘must act’ on tuberculosis vow
JULIE Bishop is under fire for being slow to release up to $10 million to help develop and trial a new tuberculosis treatment, as the Abbott government announces a three-year assistance package to combat the disease in Papua New Guinea.
The Foreign Minister announced in June that $30m from the government’s foreign aid budget would go towards funding health and medical research, with $10m set aside for new medical products for high-burden diseases in the region such as TB.
Researchers have told The Australian the government immediately needs to release these funds or risk seeing an “Ebola-style problem” on the nation’s doorstep.
Part of the funding will support the development and trial of a new TB treatment known as the PaMZ regimen, which is more effective, shorter, cheaper and easier than the current method.
“Ms Bishop’s commitment was a recognition that drug-resistant TB is right on our border and increasing rapidly, and we urgently need to do something about it before we have an Ebola-style problem,” executive director of Policy Cures Mary Moran said. “We’d love to see her recognition and commitment come to fruition.”
The Australian understands organisations were advised in November and December that an announcement of further funding would occur by the end of March.
The chief executive of the TB Alliance, Mel Spigelman, said the not-for-profit organisation had received funding from several agencies to bring the PaMZ regimen through the final stage of clinical testing but quickly needed the promised funds from the government.
“We are hoping that the Australian government will help close the funding gap to ensure the promise of the PaMZ regimen can be realised as soon as possible,” she said. “Hundreds of thousands of lives, such as those battling multi-drug-resistant TB in the Torres Straits, are depending on us.”
The comments come as the government announces an extra $15m to help prevent and diagnose the disease in PNG through better laboratory facilities, increasing hospital and community treatment and access to transport, nutrition and counselling services.
Ms Bishop said PNG had the highest rate of TB infections in the Pacific, with an estimated 39,000 total cases and 25,000 new infections each year.
Source: The Australian
