Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Globe and Mail reports on death of Zambian HIV/AIDS advocate Winstone Zulu

Toronto's Globe and Mail reports on the death on Thursday of Winstone Zulu, an HIV/AIDS advocate from Zambia who lived with the virus for two decades. "His death has devastated the international community of AIDS activists," the newspaper writes.

18 Oct 2011

New treatment approach for septic Listeria infection

Research underway at the Trudeau Institute could lead to new treatments for people sickened by Listeria and other sepsis-causing bacteria. Dr. Stephen Smiley's laboratory has published a study in the scientific journal Infection and Immunity that supports a new approach to treating these infections.

18 Oct 2011

Emergency grant to end U.S. AIDS drug crisis gets rejected

The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has notified the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) that an application it submitted on behalf of the United States for an emergency grant of $50 million to end the ongoing AIDS drug crisis in the U.S. is being rejected because, as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, "the United States is not eligible for funding from the Global Fund."

14 Oct 2011

Study finds vitamin D is critical in human immune response to tuberculosis

"Vitamin D is needed to activate the immune system's response to tuberculosis (TB)," a finding that "could lead to new treatments for the lung disease," researchers from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) said in a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Agence France-Presse reports.

14 Oct 2011

New insights into how adenovirus triggers an immune response

A Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study could lead to improved gene therapies for conditions such as heart disease and cancer as well as more effective vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.

13 Oct 2011

University of Cape Town, UT Southwestern sign affiliation agreement

UT Southwestern Medical Center and the faculty of health sciences of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, signed a five-year affiliation agreement today to collaborate on faculty and student exchanges, joint research and training activities and other educational opportunities.

13 Oct 2011

WHO says global TB cases decline for first time ever but warns funding gap, resistant strains put progress is at risk

New data published in the WHO's 2011 Global Tuberculosis Control Report on Tuesday, "shows that the number of people who fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) dropped to 8.8 million in 2010, after peaking at 9 million in 2005," the U.N. News Centre reports.

13 Oct 2011

TB rates decline for the first time: WHO report

According to Mario Raviglione, director of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Stop TB program, for the first time, the number of people infected with tuberculosis (TB) each year is declining. He was speaking at a press conference to release Global Tuberculosis Control 2011, WHO's 16th annual report on TB, which summarizes advances made and challenges ahead. The report features data on TB in nearly 200 countries with treatment results and financing trends.

12 Oct 2011

Smoking could cause 18M more cases of TB worldwide over next 40 years

Smoking could cause 18 million more cases of tuberculosis worldwide over the next 40 years and 40 million additional deaths.

12 Oct 2011

Vitamin D plays an essential role in the body's fight against TB

Not just important for building strong bones, an international team of scientists has found that vitamin D also plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections such as tuberculosis.

12 Oct 2011

ASHG to honor U of U geneticist with William Allan Award

As a teenager just moved to Iowa from war-ravaged Germany in 1951, John M. Opitz, M.D., wanted to study developmental biology, but his "very Prussian" mother insisted he go to medical school instead.

12 Oct 2011

Huffington Post profiles UNITAID chair

The Huffington Post profiles Philippe Douste-Blazy, U.N. under-secretary-general of Innovative Financing for Development and chair of UNITAID, a financing mechanism he conceived in 2004 to help provide medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.

7 Oct 2011

Keeping HIV patients on ART will have long-term economic benefits, study shows

Investments to keep 3.5 million people living with HIV on antiretroviral drugs provided by programs co-financed through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through 2020 will cost an estimated $14.2 billion, but "the financial savings would amount to between $12 billion and $34 billion," according to a study published in the journal PLoS One, Sarah Boseley reports in her "Global Health Blog" in the Guardian.

7 Oct 2011

Lipomannan on TB bacterium's outer cell surface can block TNF production

The bacterium that causes tuberculosis has a unique molecule on its outer cell surface that blocks a key part of the body's defense. New research suggests this represents a novel mechanism in the microbe's evolving efforts to remain hidden from the human immune system.

4 Oct 2011

Despite increase in cases, awareness of male breast cancer is low

Awareness of male breast cancer is low and most men do not even know they are at risk despite an increase in cases, reveals new research from the University of Leeds.

3 Oct 2011

Five reasons to support the Global Fund

Based on a report released last week by a high-level independent review panel on fiduciary controls and oversight mechanisms at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, "the changes needed at the Fund are clearly substantial," according to a Lancet editorial.

1 Oct 2011

Multi-drug resistance in first-time TB patients shows 'substantial' transmission of MDR-TB, study says

Nearly half of patients diagnosed with multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) at a Chinese hospital had not had the disease before, showing "'substantial' transmission of the deadly superbug," according to a study conducted by researchers from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, Bloomberg reports.

1 Oct 2011

Literacy Bridge launches program to improve health of women, at-risk children across rural Ghana

Literacy Bridge is responding to the need for a comprehensive solution in global health and hunger by kicking off its Health & Agriculture Communication for Women & Children Program, which is designed to improve the health of 24,000 women and at-risk children in 75 low-literate communities across rural Ghana.

1 Oct 2011

Time to increase efforts against HIV/AIDS, TB

In a Huffington Post opinion piece, Kolleen Bouchane, director of ACTION, asks whether President Barack Obama will "heed Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu's call to action" in a recent Washington Post opinion piece "and do his part to end AIDS."

1 Oct 2011

Increased communication needed for TB diagnostics development

In this post on the PLoS "Speaking of Medicine" blog, Madhukar Pai, a professor and tuberculosis (TB) researcher based at McGill University, co-chair of the Stop TB Partnership's New Diagnostics Working Group, and a consultant to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, describes a recent conference on TB diagnostics at St. John's Research Institute in Bangalore, India, that aimed "to stimulate industry interest and investments in TB innovations."

30 Sep 2011