Editorials, Opinion Pieces Respond to World TB Day

Several newspapers have published editorials and opinion pieces in response to World TB Day. Summaries appear below.

Editorials

• The Star: "It would be wrong to deny the AIDS epidemic any of the attention or resources it rightly receives;" however, it is "time for [tuberculosis] to receive the same resources and attention that is deserved by a disease that infects over nine million people annually," an editorial in The Star says. According to the editorial, TB advocates "need to demand the same answers that AIDS activists marched, screamed and grew outraged over." The editorial concludes that it is "time for South Africa to cease to top the list of high-burden TB countries and become an example of how to beat" the disease (The Star, 3/25).
  

• Tulsa World: Although tuberculosis is "rare and declining in the U.S.," the disease "continues to be one of the leading causes of death from infectious diseases," the editorial says. The U.S. "cannot afford to relax its vigilance" on TB, the editorial says, adding, "As long as TB continues to be a scourge in parts of the world it will be a threat to the U.S." The editorial concludes that the U.S. "must continue to support the global effort to fight HIV/AIDS and TB, for both humanitarian and practical reasons" (Tulsa World, 3/24).
  
  

• Kevin Winge, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: TB is "back with a vengeance," Winge, executive director of Open Arms Minnesota, writes in a Star-Tribune opinion piece. "Given the devastating impact that TB is having" in some parts of the world, "combined with the rise of drug-resistant strains" of TB, "perhaps it's time that World TB Day really does become an international event, and not one that is primarily relegated to the parts of the planet that are disproportionately affected by the disease," Winge writes (Winge, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 3/24).
  

• John Lechleiter and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Seattle Times: "[C]omplacency based on the myth that TB was yesterday's disease or limited to isolated parts of the world" needs to "end," Smith and Lechleiter, chair and CEO of Eli Lilly, write in a Times opinion piece. According to the authors, Congress "should craft and implement a plan to meet TB treatment and detection targets -- and to develop more effective drugs, diagnostics and vaccines." They write that U.S. "leadership can make a profound difference in battling this epidemic," concluding, "Today is World TB Day, but our resolve needs to be just as strong tomorrow and in all the days ahead" (Smith/Lechleiter, Seattle Times, 3/24).