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The 1/4/6x24 campaign to cure tuberculosis quickly

Nature Medicine volume 29, pages 16–17 (2023)Cite this article

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The “right of everyone to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications,” also known as the right to science, is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law. People with and at risk of tuberculosis (TB) are eager to realize this right1,2. Among the essential “applications of scientific progress” are the long-awaited shorter, less toxic TB treatment regimens. Thanks to two decades of renewed investments in TB drug development and research, it is now possible to treat TB infection in as little as one month and most forms of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB in four and six months, respectively3,4,5,6,7,8. However, these shorter treatments are futile until they reach the people who need them. Thus the 1/4/6x24 (one, four, six by 2024) campaign was launched at the AIDS 2022 conference in Montreal (see Table 1).

Table 1 The 1/4/6x24 campaign
Full size table

The campaign calls for every eligible person with TB infection or disease to have access to evidence-based, short-course treatment regimens. For this to happen, the community of people affected by TB and their allies must refuse to accept the malaise and mediocrity of duty bearers (state and non-state actors obligated to respect, promote and realize human rights) and demand timely accountability from governments, global health actors and the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industries to ensure that these new standards of care are expeditiously brought to scale.

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References

  1. United Nations General Assembly. Universal Declaration of Human Rights 217 A (III); https://go.nature.com/3jFTm4p (1948).

  2. United Nations General Assembly. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 2200A (XXI); https://go.nature.com/3ImjL1A (1966).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Treatment Action Group, New York, NY, USA

    Lindsay McKenna, Mike Frick & Mark Harrington

  2. Access to Rights and Knowledge Foundation, Kohima, Nagaland, India

    Ketholelie Angami

  3. Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

    Vuyiseka Dubula

  4. Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Jennifer Furin & Carole D. Mitnick

  5. TB HIV Care, Cape Town, South Africa

    Harry Hausler

  6. Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Harry Hausler

  7. TB PPM Learning Network, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, Quebec, Canada

    Petra Heitkamp

  8. National Tuberculosis Social Observatory, Mexicali, Mexico

    Rosa Herrera

  9. Global Health Policy and Politics Initiative, O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Sharonann Lynch

  10. Partners In Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Carole D. Mitnick, Lindsay Palazuelos & Patrick Ulysse

  11. National Empowerment Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya

    Gloriah Kerubo Moses

  12. TB Control and Management, National Department of Health, Pretoria, South Africa

    Norbert Ndjeka

  13. Operational Centre Amsterdam, Médecins Sans Frontières, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Bern-Thomas Nyang’wa

  14. McGill International TB Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Madhukar Pai

Authors
  1. Lindsay McKenna
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  15. Lindsay Palazuelos
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  16. Patrick Ulysse
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  17. Madhukar Pai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lindsay McKenna.

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Competing interests

J.F. received grant funding from the Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility to support the rollout of child-friendly formulations of second-line drugs. M.P. has no financial or industry conflicts to disclose; he serves as an advisor to the WHO, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, Stop TB Partnership and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. B.-T.N. is employed by Médecins Sans Frontières, the sponsor of the TB-PRACTECAL trial that developed a 6-month multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-/MDR-TB) regimen. Through grants to her institution, C.D.M. receives research funding to study all-oral shortened regimens for treatment of drug-resistant TB containing bedaquiline, delamanid, linezolid, clofazimine, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin and pyrazinamide.

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McKenna, L., Frick, M., Angami, K. et al. The 1/4/6x24 campaign to cure tuberculosis quickly. Nat Med 29, 16–17 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02136-z

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