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Auckland researchers leading the fight against tuberculosis

Author
Laura Heathcote,
Publish Date
Fri, 20 Feb 2015, 8:11AM
Auckland University (Wikimedia)
Auckland University (Wikimedia)

Auckland researchers leading the fight against tuberculosis

Author
Laura Heathcote,
Publish Date
Fri, 20 Feb 2015, 8:11AM

Updated 10.05am: Nearly a decade of work has paid off for Auckland University researchers involved in the global fight against tuberculosis.

They've been working on the development of a new drug for TB, and it's just got the go-ahead for human trials - the first such drug in six years.

Standard drugs are effective against early forms of the disease, but it's hoped the new drug will be effective when bacteria becomes dormant.

Auckland University's Professor Bill Denny says it's a chance to attack the latent disease.

"There's a resilience, particularly of drug resistant tuberculosis, and in New Zealand the fight is particularly important because a lot of that increase in drug resistant disease is in South East Asia which is very close to us."

He says a group of five researchers has been working on the project since 2006, so it's exciting to see it get to the last hurdle.

Bill Denny says TB is a huge problem with nine million cases and one million deaths last year.

The first trials will be undertaken around 50 to 100 healthy volunteers to ensure the drug's safety, before being tested in the clinical setting on tuberculosis patients.

Bill Denny says testing is to get underway in the United States.

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