Sen. Rubio should co-sponsor bill to fight tuberculosis worldwide

In the 1990s, West Palm Beach County had a raging tuberculosis (TB) problem. The average annual rate of TB cases in the years 1994-1997 was 81 cases per 100,000 people, compared to the national average of 7.4.

In 1993, a comprehensive intervention to drive down TB rates was launched. This initiative disseminated health messages all throughout the community and provided free treatment for active TB disease and inactive TB infections. This comprehensive approach to treating the community dropped the case rate 70% by 2005.

If we know how to drive down TB rates, why is TB still the biggest infectious disease killer globally? 10 million will fall sick — and 1.5 million will die — during this year, and countries like Lesotho have rates of 665 cases per 100,000 people.

I have been to a tuberculosis treatment center in the Tampa Bay area for a college course at the University of South Florida. Through this experience, I learned how large of an issue tuberculosis is in Florida and how strategic treatment methods must be in order to stop the disease from spreading further. Maximal effort must be put into prevention and treatment in order to ensure optimal results.

Watching public health action happen firsthand within your own community is incredible. However, most countries receive nothing close to the kind of hands-on care that we provide in Florida.

This treatment center not only identifies and treats all cases of TB until cured, it also provides education on tuberculosis to highrisk populations. Unlike in all 50 states in the U.S., treatment in developing countries is much more scarce and less comprehensive, if existing at all.

But, a solution exists in the form of legislation introduced recently in the Foreign Relations Committee. The End TB Now Act of 2019 establishes new goals for the United States to employ prevention and treatment efforts based on the latest scientific data to give access and improve the prevention of tuberculosis globally.

Not only that, this bill also increases accountability and transparency while working to develop the tools to end multidrug resistant strains. Effective diagnosis and comprehensive treatment has saved 54 million lives from 2000 to 2017 and will continue to save even more if we dedicate ourselves to the issue.

Due to this evidence, I urge Sen. Marco Rubio to co-sponsor The End TB Now Act of 2019 because of the impact it could have to end this disease worldwide. He has been supportive of efforts to stop tuberculosis in the past. I hope we can all count on him because the time to end tuberculosis is now.