Seems the MSF people are not being kept up to date which is a shame with this public broadcast (even in Australia) interview from Friday saying there is no new diagnostic. CST missed a worldwide audience of PBS by not having MSF up to date. I hope CST can fix this even though the public doesn't buy the test it was an opportunity to have the name quantiferon presented on mainstream TV.
Hope someone from CST can directly make contact with MSF and PBS and clarify thar QFT-G exists and is approved as MSF has a wide respected reach in zones where TB is rife.
NEGLECTED NEWS
February 4, 2005
Terence Smith speaks with the executive director of Doctors Without Borders about the most underreported stories of 2004 and why he believes the press did not give substantial attention to these global humanitarian crises.
Other underreported humanitarian stories TERENCE SMITH: Another entry on your list of underreported stories is not a country but a disease: Tuberculosis. Now, many people consider that a cured disease. They think it's largely eradicated. And yet that is not the case. NICOLAS DE TORRENTE: Yes. I mean, it looks like a disease of a bygone era. But, you know, the early 20th century, when we have this image of people in sanatoriums in alpine resorts in Europe, not at all.
The TB is mounting -- there's a surge in the number of TB cases and deaths associated with TB in particular, linked as well to the HIV pandemic and AIDS pandemic. Coinfection between AIDS and TB, that is really not being reported.
And what we are feeling here is that the lack of attention to the disease itself means that there is not much investment in improving the tools that doctors have at their disposal to fight TB. And we're really fighting TB with one hand or even two hands to hide behind our back. The diagnostic tools to detect the disease, it's over a century old. There have been no new innovative TB drugs for decades.
This is a completely neglected disease, although the number of people that are affected by it in today's world in the 21st century continues to rise.
TERENCE SMITH: We should note in closing here that you also mention the situations in northern Uganda, in Somalia, Burundi, Ethiopia and Liberia. Let's hope they get some more attention in the year ahead. Nicolas de Torrente, thank you very much for joining us.
NICOLAS DE TORRENTE: Thank you very much, Terry, for having me
http://wXwXwX.pbs.org/newshour/newshour_index.html#friday Listen toNeglecting News real audio 7.45 minutes to end 9.20 minutes
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