An editorial in BMJ Global Health reflects on the way to achieve universal access to rapid TB diagnostics and universal drug susceptibility testing.

RESIST-TB released its May 2023 newsletter with the latest updates and research publications on drug-resistant TB.

Mono-H regimens are associated with significantly higher rates of serious adverse events (AEs) compared with rifamycin-based regimens among tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT) options, according to a study in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Treatment Action Group (TAG) organized a webinar on 13 April 2023 providing an overview of the TB vaccine pipeline, based on TAG’s recent Tuberculosis Vaccines Pipeline Report, including the different candidates at different stages of research, and ongoing and upcoming studies that advocates should closely follow.

The UN General Assembly will hold the second High-Level Meeting on TB on 22 September 2023. The application process for special accreditation to attend the meeting is now open. The deadline for registration is 19 June 2023.

The signing of the Political Declaration in September will set the agenda for the TB response for the coming five years.

Clarion calls to end TB by 2025 may add momentum to the fight against the disease but they cannot replace the simultaneous addressal of the remaining gaps in diagnosis, treatment and spread, and boosting the socioeconomic status of India’s poor.

• TB kills 1.6 million people a year, causing more deaths than any other single infectious disease apart from COVID-19, and sickens more than 10 million people annually.
• A new TB vaccine is needed to reach global END TB goals.
• MTBVAC is a highly promising vaccine candidate that has the potential to be used as an alternative to BCG vaccination in infants and for prevention of TB disease in adolescents and adults.

PORRIÑO, SPAIN, and NEW YORK, U.S. — MAY 17, 2023 — Spanish biopharmaceutical company Biofabri, a subsidiary of Zendal, and IAVI, an international nonprofit research organization focused on developing vaccines and antibodies against infectious and neglected diseases, today announced the signing of an agreement for end-to-end development of the tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate MTBVAC. This agreement provides a framework for the future of the collaboration that the partners first announced in 2021.

TB Europe Coalition publication: Why is the multisectoral accountability framework to end TB (MAF-TB) so important in the fight against TB and what audiences should be engaged in its launch?

Globally, tuberculosis is the leading cause of death by infectious disease, topped only by COVID-19. Elimination of tuberculosis by 2030 is one of the Sustainable Development Goals. As an airborne disease that has infected about a quarter of the global population, tuberculosis control as a specific goal related to good health and wellbeing recognises that this is an international humanitarian crisis. Groups at high risk include homeless people, healthcare professionals, immigrants, Indigenous people, and incarcerated people. However, from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenge to eliminate tuberculosis became even more prominent. The upsurge of cases and deaths affected many locations, including the Americas and the Caribbean. According to Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), this region represented 3% of the global burden in 2020.