Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Eli Lilly announces $30M commitment to fight NCDs in developing nations

Eli Lilly and Company announced today a $30 million commitment over five years to fight the rising burden of non-communicable diseases in developing nations.

14 Sep 2011

Rwanda to treat HIV-positive people in discordant relationships as soon as they test positive

After a landmark study published in May "showed major reductions in HIV transmission among discordant couples due to early treatment," Rwanda has decided to begin treating people in discordant relationships with antiretroviral therapy as soon as they test HIV-positive "as part of a plan to boost national HIV prevention and treatment efforts," PlusNews reports.

14 Sep 2011

JHUSON nursing research news

In a six-month, randomized controlled study of asthmatic children living with smokers reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, August 2011, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) professor and School of Medicine faculty member Arlene Butz, MSN, CPNP, ScD, and others found that regular use of indoor air cleaners can greatly reduce household air pollution and lower rates of children's daytime asthma symptoms.

12 Sep 2011

Non-communicable disease epidemic a global problem

Later this month the United Nations will convene a high-level meeting on non-communicable diseases. The world's global health news has been so dominated by infectious culprits - HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza - that it's easy to forget just how big a toll conditions like diabetes, cancer and heart and lung disease take say experts.

9 Sep 2011

Global Fund facility offering subsidized malaria drugs 'could do more harm than good'

In this article in The American, a journal of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Roger Bate, the Legatum Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, write that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria "launched a $225 million facility that offers subsidized malaria drugs ...

9 Sep 2011

Human Rights Watch report says foreign aid indirectly supporting forced labor in Vietnam's drug rehabilitation centers

In a report released Wednesday, New York-based Human Rights Watch "accused the United States government, the World Bank and other international donors of indirectly funding forced labor in Vietnam's drug rehabilitation centers," Inter Press Service reports.

9 Sep 2011

TB vaccine candidate shows early potential in mice

Scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Colorado State University report in the September 4 issue of Nature Medicine that "[a] potential vaccine against tuberculosis [TB] has been found to completely eliminate tuberculosis bacteria from infected tissues in some mice," according to a HHMI press release.

8 Sep 2011

Dwindling donor funding in Burundi leads to national shortage of ARVs

"Burundian NGOs say at least 20 people have died" as a result of a "months-long shortage" of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs), although "Ministry of Health officials could not be reached to confirm the number of people affected," PlusNews reports.

7 Sep 2011

African giant pouched rat may be more effective than humans at detecting TB

The Wall Street Journal examines the use of the African giant pouched rat to detect tuberculosis (TB) in lab samples. A study published online in the Pan African Medical Journal last month found the rats are "better than human lab techs at identifying TB bacteria in a dollop of mucus," a finding that "holds promise for diagnosing tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa," according to the newspaper.

7 Sep 2011

International public health spending ignores neglected tropical diseases, some experts argue

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism examines what some experts are calling a serious inequity in public health spending, writing that neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) "together kill more people than maternal mortality and have a higher disease burden than malaria or tuberculosis (TB) and nearing that of HIV/AIDS. However, despite the severity of the situation, funding for NTDs is just a fraction of that spent on other diseases."

7 Sep 2011

Genetically modified M. smegmatis vaccine shows promise against TB

An experimental vaccine composed of a genetically modified bacterium closely related to the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB) has been found to protect mice against TB infection, according to a study appearing online September 4 in the journal Nature Medicine.

7 Sep 2011

NanoLogix to move R&D operations from Cincinnati to its headquarters in Hubbard

NanoLogix, an innovator in the accelerated detection and identification of microorganisms, announced today it will move its research and development operations from Cincinnati to its headquarters in Hubbard, Ohio.

6 Sep 2011

IKEPLUS immunization completely eliminates TB bacteria from infected tissues

A potential vaccine against tuberculosis has been found to completely eliminate tuberculosis bacteria from infected tissues in some mice. The vaccine was created with a strain of bacteria that, due to the absence of a few genes, are unable to avoid its host's first-line immune response.

5 Sep 2011

Einstein researchers develop tuberculosis vaccine candidate

Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University report in the September 4 online edition of Nature Medicine that they have developed a tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate that proved both potent and safe in animal studies.

5 Sep 2011

Special journal edition chronicles 3-D structures of important antibacterial, bioterrorist targets

The September issue of the online scientific journal Acta Crystallographica: Structural Biology and Crystallization Communications (Acta Cryst F) will consist entirely of work done at the Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID), a consortium of researchers from Seattle BioMed, Emerald BioStructures, the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

2 Sep 2011

New clinical data on Bristol-Myers Squibb's NULOJIX to be presented at ESOT 2011 congress

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company today announced that new data on NULOJIX (belatacept) will be presented at the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT) Congress on September 4 -7, 2011 in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom.

2 Sep 2011

QIAGEN acquires Cellestis

QIAGEN N.V. today announced that its acquisition of all the ordinary shares in Cellestis Limited by a way of a scheme of arrangement has been implemented.

From QIAGEN Manchester Limited 29 Aug 2011

ABC News features six videos on global health issues

ABC News on Thursday posted six videos in its "World In 3" health series. The three-minute videos examine malaria in Uganda, neglected tropical diseases in Niger, pneumonia in the Philippines, sleeping sickness in the Democratic Republic of Congo, tuberculosis in South Africa and parasitic worms in Brazil.

26 Aug 2011

Faith-based organizations assist in fight against malaria

Natasha Bilimoria, president of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, discusses the importance of faith-based organizations in battling malaria in this post on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog.

26 Aug 2011

Global Fund official says global economic downturn affecting resource mobilization

ABC Radio Australia's "Connect Asia" features an interview with Christophe Benn, director of external relations for the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Benn said "it has become much more difficult to mobilize resources" since the 2008-09 economic downturn and "a great deal of mobilization, both of public and private donors" is needed to maintain ongoing projects that receive donations from the Global Fund.

26 Aug 2011