Global Tuberculosis Community Advisory Board (TB CAB) Announces New Website and New Members

Contact: Natalie Shure, natalie.shure@treatmentactiongroup.org

New York City, September 3, 2024 — We’re pleased to announce the launch of www.globaltbcab.org, a new website that tells about the work of the Global Tuberculosis Community Advisory Board (TB CAB) — an international network of research-literate advocates who work to advance the interests of communities affected by TB at every step of the research, development, and implementation process for new TB drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines. The new website will introduce visitors to the TB CAB’s impressive members, including nine new members, provide updates on the TB CAB’s work and advocacy priorities, and make it easier than ever to engage the TB CAB as a researcher, product developer, or policymaker.

The TB CAB was founded in 2011 by seasoned HIV activists who wanted to bring to TB research advocacy the methods and impact of community-led advocacy that had been instrumental in winning effective treatments and saving lives in HIV. “It has been a great honor to support the TB CAB’s mission, from providing input on study design, early access, and regulatory approval, to advocating for evidence-based policies and implementation strategies to accelerate access to TB innovations,” said Wim Vandevelde of South Africa, an original founder and a current member of the TB CAB. “I look forward to seeing how our new website can help further increase community involvement in research, enhance access to tools to fight TB, and mobilize communities to increase the political will necessary to end TB.”

As the coordinator of the TB CAB, Treatment Action Group (TAG) commissioned a 2021 report that evaluated the impact of the group’s first decade. The research discovered that people who had worked with the TB CAB found the group to be a skilled technical partner and an agent of change in TB research and development (R&D). TAG released a three-part podcast exploring the report’s findings, as well as the TB CAB’s history and accomplishments. The launch of www.globaltbcab.org builds on these efforts to introduce the TB CAB to a broader audience.

“TB is chronically under-resourced and all too often politically sidelined,” said Ani Herna Sari of Indonesia, a TB survivor and current co-chair of the TB CAB. “Communities affected by TB must play a central role in fighting to end TB for good.”

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