The Covid-19 pandemic could lead to a rise in tuberculosis infections around the world as some patients will have gone undiagnosed amid the crisis, an expert has warned. Dr Laura Cleghorn, of the University of Dundee, said there is a “pressing need” to develop new treatments for illness which some wrongly think of as a “disease of yesteryear”.
The University’s Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) has received a $5 million (£3.8 million) grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to speed up the delivery of drug candidates. The primary focus of the work, which will take place over three years, will be on tuberculosis (TB), however, researchers will also work on developing treatments for malaria and future viral pandemic diseases.
Dr Cleghorn, portfolio manager for TB drug discovery at Dundee, said that extensive efforts over many years had started to make progress on reducing the burden of the disease around the globe, but that the pandemic is likely to have a negative impact on this progress. She said: “This is thought to be primarily due to reduced access to TB diagnosis and treatment centres, which will lead to more patients going undiagnosed and, subsequently, transmitting the disease within their communities.
