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Rise in TB cases requires stronger U.S. response | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
A relative adjusts the oxygen mask of a tuberculosis patient at a TB hospital on World Tuberculosis Day in Hyderabad, India, March 24, 2018. The number of people infected with tuberculosis, including the kind resistant to drugs, rose globally for the first time in years, according to a report issued Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022 by the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File)

A relative adjusts the oxygen mask of a tuberculosis patient at a TB hospital on World Tuberculosis Day in Hyderabad, India, March 24, 2018. The number of people infected with tuberculosis, including the kind resistant to drugs, rose globally for the first time in years, according to a report issued Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022 by the World Health Organization. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File) (Mahesh Kumar A./AP)

Tuberculosis or TB has been a problem in many developing countries for years. However, the COVID-19 pandemic strained resources and reallocated some to COVID-19 diagnosis, prevention and treatment. (”Tuberculosis cases rise for the first time in years, WHO says,” Oct. 27).

The United States has a very important role to play in the global fight against TB, and our congressional leaders need to support the End TB Now Act (H.R. 8654). According to The Borgen Project, a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on ending global poverty, this bill will support efforts to focus on drug-resistant TB and provide more diagnostic and treatment options to high risk individuals. It is really important that we contact our congressional leaders in order to voice the need for TB interventions around the world.

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The Borgen Project has resources on their website, borgenproject.org, that make it really simple for anyone to email or call their leaders in Congress.

— Chesapeake Dowdy, Baltimore

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