Sherrod Brown: “the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) and I have introduced the Stop Tuberculosis Now Act. The legislation…”

“the gentlewoman from Maryland (Mrs. Morella) and I have introduced the Stop Tuberculosis Now Act. The legislation proposes to amend the Foreign Assistance Act. It authorizes $100 million appropriation to USAID for the purposes of diagnosing TB in high incidence countries. TB is one of the greatest infectious killers of adults worldwide, killing 2 million people per year, killing more people last year than any year in world history. Thirteen hundred Indians, for example, die every day from tuberculosis. It is the biggest killer of young women and the biggest killer of people with HIV/AIDS in the world. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world's population is infected with the bacteria that causes TB including at least 10 million individuals in the United States. Eight million people around the world will develop active TB each year. TB is spreading as a result of inadequate treatment, and it is a disease that certainly knows no national boundaries. We have a remarkably cost effective strategy for TB control, DOTS, the Directly Observed Treatment Short course, that uses inexpensive drugs at a cost of as little as $15 per person in developing countries. The strategy is only reaching one person in five. The question is not a medical one, it is a political one.”