Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Improving TB screening among hard-to-reach populations

Tuberculosisis the number one infectious disease killer worldwide. Particularly in hard-to-reach populations, diagnosis and treatment of TB remains very challenging.

2 Dec 2019

New vaccine against bovine TB

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports says that for the first time a vaccine has been created against bovine tuberculosis that can be given without affecting the ability to diagnose tuberculosis later using the PPD skin test.

28 Nov 2019

Many women in Europe are diagnosed at late stage of HIV infection

Many women in the WHO European Region, particularly those in their 40s, are diagnosed at a late stage of HIV infection when their immune system is already starting to fail. They are three to four times more likely to be diagnosed late than younger women.

28 Nov 2019

TB must also be reduced to achieve the goal of ending AIDS epidemic by 2030

The World Health Organization has set a goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. To achieve that goal, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies, of which the American Thoracic Society is a founding member, is calling on governments, health advocates and non-government organizations on World AIDS Day to strengthen their response to AIDS and tuberculosis.

27 Nov 2019

Cleveland-based startup will use federal grant to develop AI tools for TB detection

Cleveland--Diascopic LLC, a Cleveland-based medical research company that develops diagnostic technology, will use a highly competitive federal grant to develop and apply new artificial intelligence and digital pathology tools for detecting tuberculosis.

26 Nov 2019

Software tool can predict how drugs can be combined to create effective treatments

With a shortage of new tuberculosis drugs in the pipeline, a software tool from the University of Michigan can predict how current drugs--including unlikely candidates--can be combined in new ways to create more effective treatments.

22 Nov 2019

Researchers develop breakthrough in marine sponge cell culture

Vertebrate, insect, and plant cell lines are important tools for research in many disciplines, including human health, evolutionary and developmental biology, agriculture and toxicology. Cell lines have been established for many organisms, including freshwater and terrestrial invertebrates.

21 Nov 2019

MIT researchers develop method to isolate T cells primed for certain allergies or infections

When your immune system is exposed to a vaccine, an allergen, or an infectious microbe, subsets of T cells that can recognize a foreign intruder leap into action.

19 Nov 2019

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