The Black Doctors Consortium, a coalition of public health and medical organizations, has called on the US Congress to provide $25 billion to fight the global pandemic by 2030.
The $25.3 billion initiative, unveiled in an executive order on Tuesday, seeks to address the HIV and TB pandemic with the development of drugs that fight both infections and tuberculosis.
The goal is to be able to treat patients at a level of care that can provide them with access to higher quality healthcare.
The alliance, which includes the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, and the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, said in a statement that the goal is for each of the three sectors of the US healthcare system to spend $100 billion to combat the pandemic, a figure that includes the costs of medical care and drug research.
“We are asking the Congress to ensure that the US invests $25B to address this epidemic, with an initial investment of $25,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, executive director of the consortium.
Read more about Black Plague Doctor and Medicine: The alliance said the proposed funding would be used to help fund new clinical trials, which are designed to test a variety of drugs and devices that can be used in the fight against both infections as well as tuberculosis.
It also would be put towards building a national healthcare network that can take advantage of a range of new and emerging therapies.
Among the proposed therapies for the fight are a vaccine that could help people avoid the spread of tuberculosis, the development and delivery of a drug that prevents the transmission of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, and a new drug that can treat the bacteria in the lungs of people with the lung disease COPD.
Fauci said the drug in the consortium’s proposal is called CUBIS, for the Comprehensive Lung Interferon and Immunotherapy System, which is designed to treat lung disease.
Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterial group that lives in the airways of the lungs and can spread from person to person through coughing and sneezing.