Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

More action needed to fight TB, as drug resistance spreading

"As we mark World [Tuberculosis (TB)] Day on Sunday March 24, there can be no denying that TB, fueled by drug resistance, continues to pose a serious global health threat -- one that must be urgently addressed," John Lechleiter, chair, president and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company and chair of the board of PhRMA, writes in a Forbes opinion piece, adding, "With resistance spreading, we need a renewed global commitment that combines public and private efforts to defeat TB."

21 Mar 2013

GlobalPost, humanitarian agencies examine impact of childhood TB

Noting the WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday issued a joint statement calling for an additional $1.6 million a year to fight tuberculosis (TB) in low- and middle-income countries, GlobalPost's "Global Pulse" blog examines the global impact of childhood TB, writing, "While health officials did not single out the devastating impact of the disease on children ... WHO estimates that at least 500,000 children contract TB each year and that 70,000 die from the disease, largely in Asia and Africa."

21 Mar 2013

WHO, Global Fund call for additional $1.6M a year to fight TB in low-, middle-income countries

"Low and middle-income countries need an additional $1.6 billion a year to fight tuberculosis, threatening progress made against the world's second-deadliest infectious disease," the WHO and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said in a joint statement released Monday, Bloomberg reports (Bennett, 3/18).

20 Mar 2013

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients and Médecins Sans Frontières medical staff call for urgent action

If measures to tackle multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) are not significantly stepped up, including addressing barriers that prevent both research into better drug combinations and treatment scale up, MDR-TB rates will continue to increase worldwide and a historic opportunity to improve abysmal cure rates will have been squandered, medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières warned today.

20 Mar 2013

Blog reports on PPP aimed at improving health status of poorest Central Americans, Mexicans

"At the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) recent annual meeting in Panama, the two richest men in the world" -- Mexican businessman and philanthropist Carlos Slim and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation – "discussed their contributions to a little-known public-private partnership that aims to improve the health status of the poorest Central Americans and Mexicans -- Salud Mesoamerica 2015 or SM2015," Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development (CGD), writes in the center's "Global Health Policy" blog.

20 Mar 2013

Wall Street Journal examines new initiative to combat drug-resistant TB in India

The Wall Street Journal examines a new effort to combat drug-resistant tuberculosis In India, noting "[a]n international health initiative has brokered a landmark accord that aims to halve the price patients pay for advanced tests for a strain of tuberculosis that is resistant to standard drugs."

19 Mar 2013

Blog examines new data on global burden of disease

"The Seattle-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation recently published the most recent global estimates of disease burden that update the leading causes of death and disability across the world," Todd Summers, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies Global Health Policy Center, writes in the center's "Smart Global Health" blog.

19 Mar 2013

Maintaining funding for global health programs will ensure success

"The ongoing budget negotiations in Washington will require many hard choices to be made in the coming weeks," and "[w]ith respect to global health programs, these decisions may mean, literally, the difference between life and death," Peter Chernin -- chair and CEO of the Chernin Group, chair of Malaria No More, and a board member of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria – writes in an AlertNet opinion piece.

16 Mar 2013

New issue of 'Global Fund News Flash' available online

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has published Issue 15 of its newsletter, the "Global Fund News Flash."

15 Mar 2013

Steroids used for treating TB may reduce death rates from all types of TB

The routine use of steroids to treat tuberculosis may help reduce deaths from all types of the disease, according to a new review of existing research.

14 Mar 2013

Mozambique to begin widespread use of GeneXpert TB testing machine

The Guardian reports on the rollout of the GeneXpert tuberculosis testing machine in Mozambique, where it "should speed up TB diagnosis from two to three months to two hours."

14 Mar 2013

Examining the Global Fund's new funding model

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog features an interview with Deborah Derrick, president of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in which she discusses the Global Fund's new funding model.

13 Mar 2013

Implications of IOM PEPFAR evaluation for Global Fund

"The U.S. Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences recently completed a congressionally mandated impact evaluation of the PEPFAR HIV/AIDS program, which is the single largest ever health initiative of the U.S. government," Todd Summers, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies' (CSIS) Global Health Policy Center, writes in the center's "Smart Global Health" blog.

13 Mar 2013

Thanking Japan for its commitment to the Global Fund

In a post in the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's blog, Global Fund Executive Director Mark Dybul notes "[t]he contribution Japan made in 2012 was the highest annual amount that the country had made in 10 years of remarkable support to the fight against HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria through the Global Fund."

13 Mar 2013

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement: an interview with Judit Rius, Médecins Sans Frontières

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a trade deal currently being negotiated between eleven countries of the Asia-Pacific region: Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, United States, Singapore and Vietnam.

12 Mar 2013

Health officials worried MDR-TB will become more common worldwide, in U.S.

The case of a Nepalese man with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) traveling through 13 countries before illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico, "first described by Betsy McKay at the Wall Street Journal, provides a window on a problem that health officials say is sure to arise more and more often," NPR's "Shots" blog reports.

12 Mar 2013

Health-related MDGs should 'remain at the heart' of post-2015 goals

Mark Suzman, managing director for International Policy, Programs & Advocacy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes in the foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and how "there is a heightened sense of urgency to ensure we do everything possible to meet this ambitious deadline of 2015 -- and to make sure that a new set of goals are set that keep up the critical momentum."

11 Mar 2013

U.S. global health investments must continue

"A decade ago, as I was beginning my time as Senate majority leader, bipartisan consensus in Washington helped launch a new era of progress in global health just when it was sorely needed," former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) writes in a Roll Call opinion piece.

11 Mar 2013

New funding model will help global fund grow, learn, help more people

"At the Global Fund [to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria], we launched a new funding model this week that is built to capitalize on open interaction and information flow," Global Fund Executive Director Mark Dybul writes in the Huffington Post's "The Big Push" blog, adding, "With more open dialogue between cooperative partners, we can more effectively confront and ultimately defeat these terrible diseases."

8 Mar 2013

'Strong' FY14 budget request for Global Fund can ensure investment returns

Amanda Glassman and Jenny Ottenhoff of the Center for Global Development (CGD) write in the CGD's "Global Health Policy" blog about "the tough trade-offs the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) must be considering as they finalize the president's FY14 budget request to Congress, expected to be released in mid-March."

8 Mar 2013