Foundation funds fight against TB

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is giving China a three-year grant totaling $17.6 million to help control tuberculosis, which kills 50,000 Chinese each year.

Part of the second phase of a long-term cooperation with China's National Health and Family Planning Commission, the grant will be used by the commission to scale up the comprehensive TB control program that was piloted in selected provinces. It will also drive innovation in diagnostics, treatment approaches and monitoring, e-learning, service delivery models and new financial approaches.

The first phase was launched in 2009 and involved a $33 million grant from the foundation. It helped China prevent and treat multidrug-resistant TB, and expanded the treatment and prevention strategy for multidrug-resistant TB into a comprehensive approach for all TB cases.