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UK aid to slash TB deaths

Reducing the threat to HIV positive children

23 March 2010

A new drive to slash the number of TB deaths in the world’s poorest countries will today receive £12 million in UK aid from the DFID.

TB kills nearly two million people annually and is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV and AIDS in Africa. Worldwide, nearly 25% of people who die of TB are HIV positive.

Eight million of the UK aid will go to the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation to support their work on new TB vaccines that will provide increased protection from TB, and will – for the first time – be safe to give to people with HIV.

Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine, the only licensed TB vaccine which is administered in childhood, is currently too dangerous for the weakened immune systems of people living with HIV.

International Development Minister, Mike Foster, said:

“HIV weakens immune systems and leaves those infected more vulnerable to TB. And yet the only vaccine currently available to prevent TB is a child immunisation that is dangerous for HIV positive children – exactly those who are and will grow up to be most at risk.

"If the international community is serious about tackling HIV and TB we must find a way to break this devastating cycle. That is why the UK is supporting the discovery of a new TB vaccine that is safe for babies born with HIV, and why we are scaling up efforts to reduce the impact of drug resistant strains of TB."

TB is becoming increasingly difficult to treat due to the growth of drug-resistant strains caused by inconsistent treatment.

As part of the new drive DFID also announced £4 million UK aid for the Foundation of Innovative Diagnostics (FIND) to help reduce drug resistant strains of TB by scaling up the speed and accuracy of testing for TB.

The new Aeras vaccines are also being developed to provide protection against all strains of TB, including adult ‘Pulmonary TB’ – the biggest TB killer - and drug resistant strains.

“Investment by the UK government in our TB vaccine development program is a tremendous boost for Aeras and our partners, especially during such a difficult economic environment,” said R. Gordon Douglas, Jr., MD, Executive Chairman of the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation.  “We are grateful to DFID for this generous show of support.”

In 2007 the UK announced a landmark £1 billion commitment to the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria which has helped provide 5.4 million people with TB treatment.

Notes to editors

  • DFID is the part of the UK government that manages Britain's aid to poor countries and works to get rid of extreme poverty. We work in 150 countries and our focus is to achieve the target of halving world poverty by 2015. In November 2008, at a meeting on "Joining forces to accelerate the development of new prevention technologies for HIV", DFID committed £220 million for the development of prevention technologies for diseases including HIV, TB and malaria. The £18 million has been allocated from this fund. In March 2009 DFID committed £18 million to the TB Alliance to support the development of new oral treatments for TB. For more information contact: Barbara Hewitt, DFID press office, 0207 023 0620.
  • The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation is a non-profit organization working as a Product Development Partnership to develop new tuberculosis vaccines and ensure that they are distributed to all who need them around the world. With support from governments and foundations, Aeras collaborates with academia, industry, foundations and governments to develop new TB vaccine candidates and delivery systems, manufacture vaccines at low cost and establish intellectual property rights to assure their future availability and affordability. Aeras operates a state-of-the-art laboratory and manufacturing facility in Rockville, Maryland, USA and has an office in Cape Town, South Africa. 
  • FIND is a non-profit organization established in 2003, based in Switzerland with office in Uganda and India. Its mission is to develop, evaluate, demonstrate, and accelerate the implementation of new diagnostic tests and platforms for diseases of poverty, including TB, malaria, and HAT. FIND has active collaborations with over 100 partners, including research institutes/academia, commercial partners, clinical trial sites, Ministries of Health, and bilateral and multilateral organizations, such as WHO.
  • With the funding from DFID, FIND will accelerate work on diagnostic platforms for HAT which also have the potential for application to other neglected diseases such as Buruli ulcer and leishmaniasis; accelerate the development of tools and mechanisms to strengthen the quality assurance of malaria rapid diagnostic tests; and focus on the tools and methodologies which will be needed to increase the sensitivity and accuracy of TB diagnostics.

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