The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) recently announced that it is providing life-saving medicine
in more than 100 countries for patients who have drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB).
Georgia is the first country that has received the free treatments. Some patients in this area have deadly strains of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).
The free treatments are thanks to an innovative drug donation partnership involving Janssen Therapeutics (a pharmaceutical company under Johnson & Johnson) and USAID.
MDR-TB is a strain of TB that resists treatments from at least two out of the four most frequently used medicines. Georgia is considered a high MDR-TB burden country; 48 percent of its known TB cases have been labeled as multidrug-resistant.
Approximately 200 MDR-TB patients in Georgia will soon receive SIRTURO, a TB drug, for their treatment program. This is the first new drug for TB in over 40 years, giving patients with MDR-TB hope for better treatment options.
Program leaders are also dedicated to detecting TB earlier, controlling MDR-TB and TB with technical assistance and capacity building, and providing support for innovation and research.
