Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

U.S. 'unprepared for' resurgence of MDR-TB, Wall Street Journal reports

"Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) is at epidemic proportions in some parts of the world -- a growing problem the U.S. is surprisingly unprepared for," the Wall Street Journal reports.

21 Dec 2012

Ebselen effectively inhibits thioredoxin reductase system in H. pylori, M. tuberculosis

A drug currently being used to treat ischemic strokes may prove to be a significant advance in the treatment of tuberculosis and ulcers. In a new research report appearing online in The FASEB Journal, a compound called ebselen effectively inhibits the thioredoxin reductase system in a wide variety of bacteria, including Helicobacter pylori which causes gastric ulcers and Mycobacterium tuberculosis which causes tuberculosis.

21 Dec 2012

U.S. preparedness for drug-resistant TB strains questioned

Multidrug-resistant TB is at epidemic proportions in some parts of the world -- a growing problem the U.S. is surprisingly unprepared for. The U.S. beat back multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the 1990s.

20 Dec 2012

Enlarged lymph nodes may warn of cancer

Enlarged lymph nodes are a marker for both occult cancer and a long-term risk for malignancy, confirms research published in the British Journal of Haematology.

19 Dec 2012

Zoo data show low incidence of animal–human infection

Zoonotic transmission rates are low and the risk for animal–human infection is well managed, show zoo data spanning 19 years.

19 Dec 2012

Continued U.S. leadership crucial to building on global progress against TB

Tuberculosis (TB) "is the second leading cause of death due to infectious disease worldwide; taking approximately 1.4 million lives in 2011 alone," Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), a co-chair of the TB Elimination Caucus, writes in an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog".

19 Dec 2012

New antibiotic principle for fighting bacterial infections

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have presented a new principle for fighting bacterial infections, in other words, a new type of antibiotic, in the FASEB Journal.

19 Dec 2012

Infectex initiates enrollment in SQ109 Phase IIb-III trial for MDR-TB

Infectex, a Russian biotech company in Maxwell Biotech Venture Fund's portfolio, announced today enrollment of the first patients in its Phase IIb-III clinical trial of SQ109 for MDR-TB. Infectex was founded in 2011 to develop and commercialize innovative products for the treatment of TB.

19 Dec 2012

Global Fund, Nigeria sign grants for HIV, TB initiatives

"On Thursday (Dec. 14), Nigeria signed five grant agreements with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria," with some of the money going "to provide for antiretroviral therapy treatment and prevention services, particularly on mother-to-child HIV transmission," Devex's "The Development Newswire" blog reports.

18 Dec 2012

Though progress made, global burden of HIV/AIDS requires greater, 'better' response

"Optimism and momentum has been building around the real possibility that an AIDS-free generation is imminent. Yet, the most recent estimates of HIV prevalence and incidence and of AIDS-related mortality released by UNAIDS, together with data from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 in the Lancet, make it clear that AIDS is not over," UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe; Peter Piot, director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; and Mark Dybul, incoming executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, write in a Lancet opinion piece.

15 Dec 2012

Global Burden of Disease Study finds people worldwide living longer, but with more illness, disability

"A sharp decline in deaths from malnutrition and infectious diseases like measles and tuberculosis has caused a shift in global mortality patterns over the past 20 years, according to a study released on Thursday, with far more of the world's population now living into old age and dying from diseases mostly associated with rich countries, like cancer and heart disease," the New York Times reports.

15 Dec 2012

Malaria vaccine trial: an interview with Professor Sir Brian Greenwood

Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite called plasmodium, which is transmitted from person to person by females of some species of mosquito. It is primarily a disease of tropical countries.

14 Dec 2012

IRIN examines HIV/AIDS response in Guinea-Bissau

IRIN reports on the HIV/AIDS response in Guinea-Bissau, writing, "One year after the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reduced funding to the Guinea-Bissau government body in charge of coordinating HIV prevention and treatment activities, health centers outside the capital are facing medicine shortages, patients are not receiving the treatment they need, and the transport of patients to treatment centers has been cut."

14 Dec 2012

Aidspan publishes new issue of 'Global Fund Observer'

Aidspan, an independent watchdog of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, on Friday published Issue 206 of its "Global Fund Observer."

14 Dec 2012

Fatal imbalance between global disease burden and drug development

Despite important progress in research and development (R&D) for global health over the past decade, only a small fraction of new medicines developed between 2000 and 2011 were for the treatment of neglected diseases, highlighting the 'fatal imbalance' between global disease burden and drug development for some of the world most devastating illnesses, said Doctors Without Borders/M-decins Sans Fronti-res (MSF) and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi), in an analysis to be presented today at an international conference aimed at spurring medical innovations for these diseases.

13 Dec 2012

Lutheran Malaria Initiative holds advocacy day on Capitol Hill

In the U.N. Foundation Blog, Gretchen King, director of the Lutheran Malaria Initiative (LMI), examines the efforts of LMI to "mobiliz[e] U.S. Lutherans in the global effort to end malaria deaths in Africa."

13 Dec 2012

AstraZeneca, Case Western Reserve initiate AZD5847 Phase 2a trial in TB

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and AstraZeneca, a global biopharmaceutical company, today announced the first patient enrolled in a Phase 2a trial to assess the effectiveness of AZD5847, a new test drug for patients with tuberculosis (TB), including patients with HIV co-infection.

12 Dec 2012