There was a 57% gap between estimated and notified cases of tuberculosis (TB) in the Philippines in 2020 as TB-related health services were disrupted due to the coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and reversed the gains of previous decades, according to the National Tuberculosis Program’s (NTP) 2021 report.  

Public Health Action is the free access, online journal of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. The journal focuses on TB, lung health, non-communicable diseases and related public health issues.

The risk of TB was 48% higher in patients with diabetes compared to those without diabetes, while participants with impaired fasting glucose showed no increased risk of TB incidence.

Geneva, 21 September 2021 – The Medicines Patent Pool (MPP) today announced that it has signed a licence agreement with Tandem Nano Ltd (TNL), the University of Liverpool (UoL) start-up focused on the development of its proprietary long-acting nanosystems platform technology. The non-exclusive, worldwide licence covers the patents and expertise of promising long-acting injectable technologies (LAIs) that could be applied in three disease areas with a high prevalence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs): malaria, tuberculosis (TB), and hepatitis C (HCV). The candidate LAIs, currently developed by the Centre of Excellence for Long-acting Therapeutics (CELT) based at UoL, could provide optimal doses of medicines for malaria chemoprophylaxis, TB prevention, and HCV cure. The research teams are designing medicines to be delivered through a single injection to achieve the desired effect on the pathogens over prolonged periods, suppressing the need for daily oral pills, among many other advantages at the individual and the community levels.

On 30 September 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO)' Global TB Program will host a special #EndTB webinar on strengthening TB surveillance providing a global synthesis of findings and recommendations from national TB surveillance assessments and epidemiological reviews carried out between January 2013 and April 2020.

Although prosthetic joint infections caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis are rare, they may occur in immunocompromised patients or in people from regions where tuberculosis is endemic, researchers reported in a recent study.

The Stop TB Partnership announced the successful grantees under the Round 10 of the Challenge Facility for Civil Society 2021, which will support 76 organizations from 27 countries and seven regions with grants ranging from USD 20 000 to USD 150 000,  for a total of USD 7,5 million.

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.

On 25 September 2021, the 65th Annual National Conference of Indian Public Health Association will host a symposium to discuss the role for nutritional interventions and socially responsible businesses in India's TB elimination efforts.