Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

International community must harness funds needed to control infectious diseases

"I think the most special thing about our current time is the incredible opportunity that scientific advances have provided in the field of global health, giving us the ability to completely control highly dangerous infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria," Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, writes in an opinion piece in the Huffington Post's "The Big Push" blog.

23 Jan 2013

Accelerated partnerships critical to ensuring malaria elimination goals

Writing in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog in advance of the Monitoring & Evaluation Reference Group (MERG) meeting convened by the Roll Back Malaria Partnership and taking place in Namibia this week, Lucy Chesire, executive director and secretary to the board of the TB ACTION Group, interviews Roly Gosling, current head of the Malaria Elimination Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco, "regarding malaria elimination, its importance, and why the Global Fund is critical to achieving that goal worldwide."

19 Jan 2013

New report highlights links between NTDs and socio-economic prosperity

A recently released report, entitled "Social and Economic Impact Review on Neglected Tropical Diseases," highlights links between neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and socio-economic prosperity.

19 Jan 2013

Survey finds shortage of TB medicines in U.S.; Consequences similar to lack of access in developing countries, advocate says

"More than 80 percent of health departments in the United States that treat tuberculosis [TB] resistant to standard treatment have trouble obtaining the drugs they need to cure the disease, according to a national survey released on Thursday," Reuters reports.

18 Jan 2013

Japan's 2012 payment to Global Fund its highest in 10 years

"The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria today welcomed the payment by Japan of the second and final tranche of its total 2012 contribution of US$343 million, the highest annual amount that Japan has ever made in 10 years of vigorous support for the Global Fund," a Global Fund press release reports.

17 Jan 2013

Continued investment needed to maintain gains against malaria

In this post in Management Sciences for Health's (MSH) "Global Health Impact" blog, Frederick Hartman, the global technical lead for communicable diseases and epidemic preparedness, and regional portfolio director, East Africa at the Center for Health Services at MSH, examines advances made in malaria control over the past decade, writing, "Malaria is still one of the five leading causes of child under-five mortality worldwide, and deserves continuing attention."

17 Jan 2013

Venture social investment 'could be a new thinking' in development aid

In an opinion piece in The Hill's "Congress Blog," Taufiqur Rahman, an international health consultant and founder of the Center for Implementation Efficiency, explores the concept of "venture social investment or VSI," in which the idea of venture capitalism is used "to reward good ideas or sustainable initiatives by investing limited foreign aid money to gain a much bigger and sustainable impact in developing countries" and creating "a partnership between developed world and low-income countries."

17 Jan 2013

Lancet commentary cautiously optimistic about public health system in Haiti

In this Lancet commentary, John Vertefeuille, Scott Dowell, Jean Domercant and Jordan Tappero of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examine the state of the public health system in Haiti three years after a 7.0 earthquake struck the country, writing, "Haiti is starting to show that its health services have expanded far beyond those in place before the earthquake occurred."

17 Jan 2013

Patients with COPD more likely to develop serious bacterial infections

It is well known that COPD patients run a higher risk of contracting respiratory infections. However, a new thesis from Lund University in Sweden shows that they are also at higher risk of other bacterial infections, such as tuberculosis (TB) and pneumococcal and staphylococcal infections that can cause serious illness.

16 Jan 2013

Malaria control: an interview with Dr Jo Lines

Malaria is a tropical, mosquito-borne disease. It is found all over the tropics, in every continent but diminished now a great deal in most of Latin America, most of Asia. Still 90% of the world’s deaths due to malaria – are in Africa and most of them are in young children in Africa.

16 Jan 2013

White House, Congress should increase funding for PEPFAR, Global Fund to achieve 'AIDS-free generation'

"The Blueprint for an AIDS-Free Generation released by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in November 2012 makes a bold declaration: We are at a tipping point in this most devastating pandemic of our time," Chris Collins, vice president and director of public policy at amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research, writes in the Huffington Post's "Impact" blog.

16 Jan 2013

Supreme Court agrees to hear case challenging federal anti-prostitution pledge

"The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider whether the government can require groups that receive federal funding for overseas HIV/AIDS programs to have explicit policies that oppose prostitution and sex trafficking," Reuters reports.

16 Jan 2013

Diospyrin inactivates a drug target for tuberculosis in new way

A compound from the South African toothbrush tree inactivates a drug target for tuberculosis in a previously unseen way.

16 Jan 2013

U.N. SG meets with special envoys for AIDS, UNAIDS Executive Director to discuss future efforts

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday in New York met with his team of U.N. Special Envoys for AIDS to discuss progress in fighting the disease, U.N. Radio/Ghana Broadcasting Corporation reports.

11 Jan 2013

Kingston University professor receives prestigious prize for work on drug metabolism

The Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing at London's Kingston University has received a prestigious prize recognising her lifetime's work on drug metabolism.

9 Jan 2013

New compound restores health of mice with MRSA infection

Researchers have discovered a new compound that restores the health of mice infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an otherwise dangerous bacterial infection. The new compound targets an enzyme not found in human cells but which is essential to bacterial survival.

8 Jan 2013

Support innovative financing mechanisms for global health

"Millions of lives are saved today in developing countries because of bold, innovative financing arrangements over last 10 years.

8 Jan 2013

Reflecting on FDA approval of new TB drug

Noting "the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it has approved a new treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) that can be used as an alternative when other drugs fail," Kim Lufkin, communications officer at the Global Health Technologies Coalition (GHTC), writes in the coalition's "Breakthroughs" blog, "There is a pressing and urgent need for even more new TB drugs, which makes this new FDA approval so significant."

7 Jan 2013

Researchers uncover new way that some bacteria survive when under siege by antibiotics

Researchers have uncovered a new way that some bacteria survive when under siege by antibiotics.

4 Jan 2013

Optofluidics allow for new understanding of resistance to antibiotics

It's often difficult to completely eliminate a bacterial infection with antibiotics; part of the population usually manages to survive. We've known about this phenomenon for quite some time, dating back nearly to the discovery of penicillin. For more than 50 years, scientists have believed that the resistant bacteria were individuals that had stopped growing and dividing.

4 Jan 2013