A clinical pharmacologist from RUDN University together with his colleagues from Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology completed the second stage of a clinical trial of a new TB vaccine that was conducted with the participation of 180 volunteers. The trial confirmed the safety and efficiency of the vaccine. The results of the study were published in the Vaccines journal.

A study published in The Lancet Global Health described distinct stages through drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) diagnosis and treatment from the point of view of patients with DR-TB and HIV in KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. The study emphasised that despite improvements in treatment, including shorter, all-oral regimens that include bedaquiline, DR-TB treatment remains lengthy, difficult, and life-changing for individuals.

The Stop TB Partnership Board has appointed Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, as the new Chair of the Stop TB Partnership Board. Dr. Harsh Vardhan’s three-year tenure will begin in 2021.

16 March 2021, Geneva | The World Health Organization Global Tuberculosis Programme has initiated a process for the establishment of Global individual patient data platform for drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment (DR-TB IPD). The DR-TB IPD is a shared platform and collaborative initiative to generate reliable evidence on drug-resistant TB treatment to inform future TB treatment guidelines and be available for researchers to analyse. The purpose of the DR-TB IPD is to facilitate pooling of individual patient data issued from researchers, local or national databases in the context of drug-resistant TB treatment and facilitate policy update, development and public health research. It will be supported by the WHO Global TB Programme and maintained by the selected Data Curator. Data Curator is the entity in charge of maintenance, curation and hosting of the DR-TB IPD.

On Thursday, April 1, 2021, at 8:00 AM EDT / 2:00 PM CEST, Treatment Action Group (TAG) and TB Europe Coalition (TBEC) will co-host a webinar, “Demanding a Higher Standard of TB Care in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).”

2021 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) was held virtually on 6-10 March 2021.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is organizing a special virtual talk show to commemorate World TB Day on 24 March at 13:00H CET. This will put the spotlight on TB in the midst of the ongoing COVID crisis.

The Clock Is Ticking
Every day counts to save more lives

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted much of the research and development done in the field of tuberculosis (TB) prevention, diagnostics, and treatment measures, as well as shifted the focus away from TB care. Lockdowns and the high burden placed on national healthcare systems has prevented patients from accessing TB diagnostic and treatment services, and it is expected that this will contribute to a significant rise in TB cases worldwide, thus reducing the chances of achieving the SDG, EndTB and UN HLM targets.

-- The Experimental Tuberculosis Group at the IGTP has set up this trial, coordinated from Can Ruti, within the European project H2020 'SMA-TB'
-- The study will evaluate the efficacy and safety of adding acetylsalicylic acid or ibuprofen to the antibiotic treatments applied for tuberculosis
-- It is a phase II trial which will be carried out in South Africa and Georgia, two of the countries the WHO has in its sights to control this infectious disease
-- The trial has been prepared in the midst of the pandemic, with the added challenge of coordinating it with the restrictions and different stages of the epidemic in each of the countries involve