Unified approach to infectious diseases a must

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn says EU research plays a key role in the battle against Aids, malaria and tuberculosis.

WHEN James Joyce referred to it in Dubliners in 1914, it was called Consumption and was a terrible scourge on Irish society. Tuberculosis (TB) remained a major cause of death in Ireland until the 1950s, after which many of us thought advances in medicine had banished TB forever. But in recent years, the number of reported cases has been creeping up in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe and worryingly, new strains of the disease appear increasingly resistant to drugs.

The resurgence of tuberculosis is not unique. We have seen the emergence of drug resistance in many other infectious diseases, such as HIV/Aids and malaria. Globally, HIV/Aids alone accounts for an estimated two million deaths every year, while tuberculosis and malaria together kill an estimated 2.2m people. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that, in total, 1,500 people die each hour from an infectious disease.