Canada is falling behind on staying up-to-date with newer treatments for what is still one of the deadliest infectious diseases in the world: tuberculosis.
The key points argued by Houston and Rea is that there are newer regimens for providing faster, safer and more efficient treatments for tuberculosis. There is a special concern about drug-resistant tuberculosis . They also argued that new tools such as the Global Drug Facility and changes to Canadian regulatory structure can improve access in Canada for tuberculosis drugs.
The authors also revealed that access to some of the drugs can only be obtained through a temporary mechanism known as the Health Canada Special Access Program . "The 2022 Canadian Tuberculosis Standards explicitly identified access via the SAP as an obstacle to timely access, given the substantial difficulties in obtaining drugs through this program," said the CMAJ article.