Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Antibiotics face an existential crisis

Antibiotics are facing an existential crisis less than a century after their introduction. The bacteria-fighting drugs are becoming less effective as a result of their overuse in both humans and animals.

18 Nov 2019

New clinical guideline for treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis published

The American Thoracic Society, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, European Respiratory Society and the Infectious Diseases Society of America have published an official clinical guideline on the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the Nov. 15 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

18 Nov 2019

New NIH funding will accelerate progress in TB vaccine development

Seattle Children's Research Institute is one of three recipients of $30 million in first-year-funding provided by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to establish centers for immunology research to accelerate progress in tuberculosis vaccine development.

15 Nov 2019

CSU awarded $1.2 million subcontract to accelerate tuberculosis vaccine development

A team of researchers in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology at Colorado State University aim to advance what is known about the complex immune response necessary to prevent tuberculosis disease.

15 Nov 2019

New approach may help kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Current treatment regimens for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), the causative agent of tuberculosis, are long, complex, and hard for people to sustain. Moreover, the bacteria often develop drug resistance, and many people harbor multi-drug-resistant strains. In 2018 alone, nearly 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis worldwide.

12 Nov 2019

FIRS calls for an end to preventable deaths from pneumonia

In support of World Pneumonia Day, Nov. 12, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, of which the American Thoracic Society is a member, calls for an end to preventable pneumonia deaths, ensuring equitable access to interventions for prevention and control of pneumonia.

12 Nov 2019

Study provides new insight into antibiotic synthesis

Researchers at McGill University's Faculty of Medicine have made important strides in understanding the functioning of enzymes that play an integral role in the production of antibiotics and other therapeutics. Their findings are published in Science.

11 Nov 2019

Tightening of Ebola care practice rules following survivor’s death

Guidelines for the safe care of Ebola patients are being looked over after a patient's death due to a second infection from Ebola.

1 Nov 2019

New grant funds innovative approach to bladder cancer treatment

The San Antonio Medical Foundation has awarded Texas Biomedical Research Institute Professor Jordi B. Torrelles, Ph.D., with a $173,000 grant to study a modified Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette et Guérin (BCG) vaccine shown to have promise for treating bladder cancer.

30 Oct 2019

New TB vaccine: mid-phase trials confirm safety, long-term prevention

A new study published on October 29, 2019, in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports a new vaccine which could change the face of tuberculosis prevention. The disease kills 1.5 million people worldwide each year.

30 Oct 2019

Study uses whole-genome sequencing for early identification and containment of AMR pathogens

A study published today in PNAS examines the evolutionary and epidemiologic history of an epidemic strain of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) - called LAM4/KZN- in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

29 Oct 2019

TB is not a life-long infection in most people

A new analysis challenges the longstanding notion that tuberculous infection is a life-long infection that could strike at any time and cause tuberculosis. Based on a review of clinical studies, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues show that people who test positive with immunologic TB skin or blood tests rarely develop TB.

25 Oct 2019

New $30M contract signed to accelerate TB vaccine development across the country

Tuberculosis (TB) is the number-one cause of death from an infectious disease in the world: In 2017, the most recent data available, 10 million people developed TB and 1.6 million died.

23 Oct 2019

Anti-arthritis drug can stop tuberculosis bacillus from infecting blood stem cells

Immunologist Johan Van Weyenbergh (KU Leuven) and his Belgian-Brazilian colleagues have shown that a drug used to fight arthritis also stops the process that allows the tuberculosis bacillus to infect and hijack blood stem cells.

23 Oct 2019

Researchers assess accuracy of lateral flow urine LAM test in detecting TB in HIV-positive people

Tuberculosis (TB) causes more deaths in people living with HIV than any other disease, with more than 300,000 deaths in 2017. When detected, early TB can be treated effectively; however, people with advanced HIV are at high risk of death, often without knowing they have TB.

22 Oct 2019

TB care reaches 7 million says WHO report

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released a report on the latest status of treatment of tuberculosis worldwide. The report shows that around the world more people are getting adequate care for tuberculosis in 2018 than ever before but some vulnerable populations are still left out.

21 Oct 2019

Researchers identify new TB enzyme target to help fight deadly infection

Researchers have found a crucial enzyme in tuberculosis (TB) to target, allowing the development of new treatments to help fight against the disease's drug resistance.

18 Oct 2019

WHO report finds that TB continuous to be the leading infectious disease killer

Following today's release of the World Health Organization's Global Tuberculosis Report 2019, the American Thoracic Society joins the WHO in calling for redoubled efforts to end the global TB pandemic by 2030, the goal set by the global community in the United Nations Political Declaration to End Tuberculosis on Sept. 26, 2018.

17 Oct 2019

Scientists decode molecular architecture of secretion systems involved in tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious infectious disease that is typically spread through aerosols and mainly affects the lungs. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 1.7 million people die from such an infection worldwide every year.

10 Oct 2019

New sensor technology to revolutionize treatment and cure of tuberculosis

A trial involving an edible sensor connected to a paired mobile, that enables medical staff to remotely see patients` intake of tuberculosis (TB) medicine, has produced superior results to directly observed therapy (DOT), where a healthcare worker watches the patient swallow medication, leading researchers to suggest that the technology could be a game changer in high prevalence countries where treatment adherence remains a stumbling block to eliminating TB.

4 Oct 2019