Young people are at risk of falling seriously unwell with tuberculosis and spreading the disease. Therefore, researchers at Karolinska Institutet, among others, have mapped key factors that affect the treatment outcomes in 10- to 24-year-olds with tuberculosis in Brazil, where the disease is increasing. To deal with the global tuberculosis epidemic, researchers say that greater focus is needed on this age group in tuberculosis programs. The study is published in The Lancet Global Health.

Studying the implementation of public health interventions typically involves the identification of “facilitators” and “barriers”. In the case of active tuberculosis case-finding (also referred to as community-based tuberculosis screening), many studies have documented facilitators and barriers, but only few have explored the “how-to” of capitalizing on facilitators and overcoming barriers to put active case-finding into practice. This new study contributes to filling this gap.

Worldwide, 30 countries account for almost 90% of the global tuberculosis burden. Ending tuberculosis will require early detection of people with TB, and active case-finding is one strategy for doing so. In this new study researchers at the Department of Global Public Health sheds light on policies for active case-finding in the 30 high TB burden countries, and the gap between policy and practice.

The picture on the left shows a tuberculosis (TB) infection in a mouse lung, in which immune cells form a granuloma around the bacteria. The different symbols represent working copies of active genes, called messenger RNA, which are different in the granuloma centre in comparison to the surrounding cells.

A new EU project on the theme of HIV, hepatitis C and tuberculosis is a door opener for collaboration between researchers from EU countries and Russia. One of the project’s initiators is Anders Sönnerborg, Professor of Clinical Virology and Infectious Diseases at KI’s Departments of Laboratory Medicine, and Medicine Huddinge. The project Common Actions Against HIV/TBC/HCV Across the Regions of Europe (CARE) will mainly focus on the spread of the infections and resistance to treatment.

According to a new study from Karolinska Institutet which is being published in the journal Autophagy, the body's own defence system can be strengthened with existing medicines used for treating tuberculosis. The results suggest a new treatment principle for infectious diseases that can strengthen the effect of traditional antibiotic treatments and reduce the risk of developing a resistance.