The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis, backed by more than 400 organizations worldwide, aims to treat 50 million people in the next 10 years as well as develop new treatments and a vaccine, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said in a release.
The fund is expected to spend $47 billion on TB treatment and control, while $9 billion has been earmarked for research and development. The funding is part of a larger campaign against TB, which killed 1.6 million people worldwide last year.
Gates, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and British treasury Chief Gordon Brown called for help to prevent 14 million tuberculosis deaths over the next decade.The Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis was formed by the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership, a group of 400 organizations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation now gives $300 million to help fight the disease, and Gates said the amount would reach $900 million by 2015.
