The Senate State Foreign Operations Subcommittee approved a fiscal year 2015 funding bill Tuesday with no new resources for the U.S. flagship global AIDS program, PEPFAR, and an $11 million cut in the U.S. response to global tuberculosis. PEPFAR is funded at $4.02 billion and TB at $225 million.  The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria receives $1.35 billion in the bill for the fiscal year beginning October 1.

BOSTON, MASS – Gavin Churchyard and Katherine Fielding presented results this morning from the XPert for TB: Evaluating a New Diagnostic Trial (EXTEND) on the question of whether Xpert MTB/RIF diagnostic test reduces early mortality in adults with suspected TB, facilitates earlier initiation of TB treatment and antiretroviral therapy and reduces the number of patients lost to follow up compared to sputum microscopy.

Science Speaks is live-blogging from IDWEEK 2013. Meeting in San Francisco from Oct. 2-6, with the theme “Advancing Science, Improving Care,” the conference features breaking scientific advances and approaches in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiology of infectious diseases, including HIV and TB.

The House Appropriations Committee voted on its fiscal year (FY) 2013 State and Foreign Operations Appropriations bill Wednesday and released a report that clarifies its funding intentions for key global health programs. 

Stephen Lawn reminded the audience at the International Treatment as Prevention Workshop in Vancouver on Wednesday that antiretroviral therapy (ART) goes a long way to protect HIV-infected individuals from tuberculosis (TB). The HIV-associated TB epidemic requires “radical interventions,” according to Lawn.  “DOTS [directly observed TB therapy, short course] just isn’t doing it.”