Rapid diagnosis and treatment are crucial in the fight against tuberculosis. But today's testing methods are not good enough. Tests based on blood biomarkers may be the solution.

Worldwide, more people are on the move than ever before, with an estimated 103 million forcibly displaced people globally including an estimated 32.5 million refugees. Refugees and other populations in humanitarian settings face considerable threats to their health, wellbeing and survival, including crowded living conditions, poverty, undernutrition, precarious legal status, discrimination and poor access to health and social protection services, all conditions in which tuberculosis (TB) thrives. In most settings, refugees are more likely to be exposed to TB, develop TB disease once exposed and have poor health, social and economic outcomes as a result of it.

A second daily dose of dolutegravir for people taking standard TB treatment seems to be unnecessary, a South African randomised study has reported in the journal Lancet HIV.

On 15 June, 2023, TB Europe Coalition (TBEC) organized a webinar featuring a presentation by Treatment Action Group’s TB Project Officer, David Branigan, on the practical actions advocates can take to promote the adoption and scale up of shorter, safer 1/4/6 regimens for TB prevention and the treatment of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB as well as supportive diagnostics. The webinar discusses specific advocacy strategies to ensure these regimens and diagnostics are included in Global Fund proposals as well as in National Strategic Plans, to promote increased availability and access in countries. This webinar is part of the TBEC webinar series: The ABC for a TB Activist.

-- First-of-its-kind systematic review on the clinical relevance of test values from the QuantiFERON-TB Gold Plus TB1 and TB2 blood collection tubes has been published

-- Study including 4,050 subjects highlights the value of the TB2 tube and the detection of CD8 T-cell responses for immunocompromised patients, a key risk group for TB disease

-- Higher interferon-gamma production difference between TB2 and TB1 tubes in active TB compared to latent TB subjects suggests stronger CD8 T-cell response

Community Advisory Boards representing Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Eastern Europe and Central Asia will ensure research is needs-driven and new tools are accessible.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a five-year, $19.5 million grant to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for support of Regional Prospective Observational Research in Tuberculosis International, or RePORT International.

An article published in Spotlight elaborates on a series of related trials called XACT, exploring community-based TB testing using battery-operated molecular tests.

At Tufts University School of Medicine, Shumin Tan is investigating the human-microbe relationship to advance not just an understanding of tuberculosis, but any infection.

Researchers from the University of Leicester are among those hoping to create an improved vaccine to fight tuberculosis as part of a €9 million Euro project.