Scientific American Profiles TB Advocate Keshavjee
Scientific American on Monday profiled Salmaan Keshavjee, chair of the World Health Organization's Green Light Committee, which procures low-cost tuberculosis drugs for participating countries. In his role with the committee, Keshavjee discusses TB control efforts with participating countries and advises them on how to scale up their projects to meet GLC guidelines. Since he began the position in 2007, the number of projects participating in GLC has increased from 55 to 120. In addition, Keshavjee in 2008 visited more than 20 countries to assess local efforts to control multi-drug resistant TB. According to Keshavjee, the rising global rates of MDR-TB are unacceptable. "Poor countries are viewed differently, and the expectation of what you can do with people is viewed differently," he said.According to Scientific American, Keshavjee in 2007 traveled to Lesotho with the not-for-profit organization Partners in Health to help coordinate the construction of a new TB hospital and laboratory. The construction of the hospital cost less than $500,000, and PIH opened the facility with a staff of locally trained health care workers and lab technicians within one year. However, Lesotho has one of the highest rates of TB and HIV worldwide, and Keshavjee said that he is aware that a single hospital could not control the diseases, Scientific American reports. "What frustrates me the most is ... the lack of imagination" in TB control efforts, Keshavjee said. He added that in some places, such as Lesotho, health workers can take simple steps to improve TB care. "You're saying the person can't afford to take the bus to get free medicine that costs $2,000, well why don't we give them a bus voucher?" he asked. "This is not rocket science," Keshavjee added (Tweed, Scientific American, 2/23).
A slide show of the renovated TB hospital in Lesotho is available online. This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
