10 June 2020, Geneva, Switzerland - The Stop TB Partnership today announced that its Global Drug Facility (GDF) will distribute 100,000 Xpert® Xpress SARS-CoV-2 tests donated by Cepheid towards the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Xpert® Xpress SARSCoV-2 is a rapid molecular diagnostic test for the qualitative detection of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19. The test has been designed to operate on any of the more than 23,000 GeneXpert® Systems worldwide, with a detection time of approximately 45 minutes.

Scientists from the University of Bradford say they are ‘a step closer to finding a vaccine’ for tuberculosis after discovering a new variant of the disease in Africa.

AFEW International released the COVID-19 report “Interruption and Innovation” with an overview of disruptions of and responses to prevention, treatment and care for key populations at risk for HIV, TB and viral hepatitis due to COVID-19 in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

05 June 2020 | Geneva - The World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB Programme is pleased to share a compendium of key resources to facilitate knowledge sharing and promote research on the interlinkages between tuberculosis (TB) and COVID-19. Given similar disease presentation between TB and COVID-19, and the adverse impact of this pandemic on TB services and health outcomes, knowledge sharing is important for a timely response to the dual threat of COVID-19 and TB.

Compared with medium-level alcohol use, very high use correlated with latent tuberculosis infection among adults with HIV in Uganda, according to a cross-sectional study in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Aidspan: Global Fund Observer

The Stop TB Partnership released its May 2020 newsletter, summarizing the initiatives and activities carried out during the month.

A research program, launched by the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Africa (CIDRI-Africa) at the University of Cape Town, will investigate the interaction between the COVID-19 pandemic and common endemic infectious diseases in the South African context - HIV and TB.

Guilford, Conn., June 2, 2020 - InveniAI^® LLC, a global leader pioneering the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to transform innovation across drug discovery and development, is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with TB Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to the discovery, development, and delivery of better, faster-acting and affordable tuberculosis (TB) drugs. TB Alliance will make use of InveniAI’s AI and machine learning platform, AlphaMeld^®, to identify and accelerate transformative therapies for the management, treatment, and cure of TB, which remains the world’s top infectious disease killer.

New guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) will help countries keep essential health services running whilst taking measures to keep people safe in the COVID-19 pandemic. Most health systems are facing challenges of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Countries must find ways to keep people safe and ensure the delivery of services such as emergency care for conditions like heart attacks and injury; immunization to prevent outbreaks; treatment for infectious diseases like HIV, malaria and tuberculosis; and screening and treatment for noncommunicable diseases like cancer and diabetes.