Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

New drug shows promise in fighting Tuberculosis (TB)

Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, have determined how a promising drug candidate attacks the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). Published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the finding may help scientists optimize the drug candidate, PA-824, which targets Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb).

28 Dec 2005

New drug shows promise in fighting Tuberculosis (TB)

28 Dec 2005

Micro-gyroscopes could detect, monitor and provide therapy guidance on cancer

A vibrating disc no bigger than a speck of dust could help to diagnose and monitor common types of cancer and provide specialists with information about the most appropriate therapy.

22 Dec 2005

Extremely infectious pneumonia-like disease slips through body's immune system

A new study found that an extremely infectious pneumonia-like disease in humans slips through the immune system's usual defense mechanisms.

21 Dec 2005

Imperial public health expert to head up WHO Tuberculosis Task Force

Dr Rifat Atun, Director of Centre for Health Management at Imperial College's Tanaka Business School has been appointed to chair a new World Health Organization (WHO) Task Force on Health System Strengthening and Tuberculosis Control. The initiative is led by the WHO's Stop TB Department.

30 Nov 2005

Drug partners in fight against AIDS say measles shot could be the answer!

Major drug company GlaxoSmithKline is hoping to develop an experimental AIDS vaccine by "piggy-backing" on a shot against measles.

29 Nov 2005

Nothing changes - AIDS drug goal defeated by bureaucracy

A recent report on the failure of the United Nations "3 by 5" AIDS initiative, says that because of bureaucracy, poor management and inadequate funding, a global drive to put 3 million poor people on life-saving AIDS drugs by the end of 2005, has been defeated.

28 Nov 2005

Tuberculosis research

It is estimated that two billion people--or one-third of the world's population--are chronically infected without active symptoms. Nine million new cases of active disease are diagnosed annually, resulting in two million deaths.

26 Nov 2005

People taking highly active antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection remain susceptible to tuberculosis

...though the risk is lower than for HIV-infected patients not on HAART, according to an article in the Dec. 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

13 Nov 2005

Syphilis on the rise in U.S. - high risk sex among men to blame

According to an annual report on sexually transmitted diseases (STD), by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of U.S. syphilis cases rose for the fourth year in 2004, and that increase was mainly among men.

9 Nov 2005

Inexpensive and rapid test for tuberculosis wins major award

An inexpensive and rapid test for tuberculosis (TB) which could be used in developing countries has won first place in the Best Innovation to Improve Global Healthcare category of the Medical Futures Innovation Awards. It also scooped the overall prize at the awards ceremony held last week in London.

7 Nov 2005

Fundamental insight about protein evolution

While searching for new targets for malaria drugs and vaccines, a team including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) medical student fellow reached a fundamental insight about evolution: different species make use of similar sets of proteins in different ways.

3 Nov 2005

Drug giants join forces to develop gel for women in fight against AIDS

Giant American drug companies Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb, have signed agreements to develop a treatment called a microbicide, a gel or a cream that women can use to protect themselves from AIDS.

2 Nov 2005

US Congress has wasted an opportunity to tackle the rising numbers of chronically hungry people in the world

On World Food Day, Oct 16, the World Food Programme (WFP) delivered some disquieting news: the number of chronically hungry people is rising again after decades of decline. Almost 6·5 million people have died so far this year from hunger and related diseases, which claim more lives than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.

20 Oct 2005

Survival rate of HIV-infected patients in India has risen in response to a 20-fold drop in the price of antiretroviral therapy

Many of the more than 5 million HIV-infected people living in India have been unable to obtain treatment due to the high cost. With the introduction of generic ART into India in 2000, the price of HIV drugs fell from $778 per month to $100 per month, and eventually declined even further to just $33 per month in 2003.

19 Oct 2005

How hurricanes impact public health long term

A Johns Hopkins emergency physician who spent the past five weeks working on public health issues in the Gulf Coast region following hurricane Katrina warns that the disaster's potential for wreaking havoc and damage to people's health may continue for months after the hurricane has passed.

19 Oct 2005

Bayer to produce new Tuberculosis drug at low prices for poor nations

A promising new antibiotic, moxifloxacin, produced by Bayer Healthcare is about to be tested against tuberculosis, a disease that kills 5,000 people a day.

18 Oct 2005

Antibiotic moxifloxacin as a new treatment for tuberculosis

Moxifloxacin is currently approved in more than 100 countries, including the United States, as a treatment for bacterial respiratory infections, such as bronchitis, sinusitis and pneumonia.

17 Oct 2005

$4.4 million, 4-year grant aims to bridge gap between Western and African medicine

Described as a hotspot of botanical diversity, there are more than 20,000 indigenous plant species in South Africa. Several thousand of them are used by traditional healers every day in that country for treating a range of problems from the common cold to serious diseases such as AIDS.

17 Oct 2005

Fungal contamination of bedding

Researchers at The University of Manchester funded by the Fungal Research Trust have discovered millions of fungal spores right under our noses - in our pillows.

From The University of Manchester 16 Oct 2005