Financial Times special report focuses on tuberculosis

Mar 25 2013

The Financial Times has published a special report (.pdf), titled "Combating Tuberculosis 2013," as World TB Day on March 24 approaches. The following summaries briefly describe the articles in the series.

• TB: Austerity poses risk to funding for battle ahead: The article reviews funding for efforts to fight the disease, as well as advancements in diagnostics and treatments (Jack, 3/21).
• Opinion: 'World must pay now to beat TB': Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Executive Director Mark Dybul and Stop TB Partnership Executive Secretary Lucica Ditiu state that more investment is needed to beat TB (3/21).
• Opinion: Systemic failures blamed for lack of progress against TB: Neil Schluger, chief of the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at the Columbia University Medical Center, "says lack of coordination has aided spread of a preventable epidemic" (3/21).
• Pharmaceuticals: TB drug takes tough road to market: The article examines how medicines are developed and tested (Jack, 3/21).
• TB: Simple interventions can make a big difference: The piece describes low-cost interventions to fight bacteria (Batchelor, 3/21).
• TB and pediatrics: Children get a raw deal: Therapies for children with TB are lacking, the article says (Twentyman, 3/21).
• Africa: Mobility of mine workers stokes continent's tuberculosis problem: The article examines how rural migrants from rural communities are complicating the fight against HIV and TB (England, 3/21).
• Epidemic fears: India faces drug-resistant TB strain: Public health experts criticize the Indian government's response to the threat, according to the article (Kazmin, 3/21).
• Vaccines: TB trial setback fails to damp enthusiasm: Though a recent clinical trial of a TB vaccine failed to show positive results, "[r]esearchers remain in an upbeat mood," the article states (Cookson, 3/21).
• Tobacco: Smoking poses TB risk to young: The article examines how smoking can increase the risk of TB infection (Thompson, 3/21).
• Animal health: Bovine TB variant costs U.K. dear: The article examines whether culling badgers who carry the disease will reduce the risk of spread into the bovine population (Bird, 3/21).
• Pakistan: High demand for well-funded TB clinics: Poor communities in Pakistan "struggle to get appropriate care," according to the article (Bokhari, 3/21).
• Diagnostics: Hopes emerge of improved TB tests: The article looks at the development of new TB diagnostics (Ge, 3/21).
• Strong diabetes link to TB in developing countries: Public health experts are pushing for "bidirectional" screening for the two conditions, the article notes (Bird, 3/21).
• TB: More needs to be done to stop 'stowaway killer': The article examines efforts by the U.K. to prevent immigrants with TB from crossing the border (Batchelor, 3/21).