1 December 2013 - Geneva - There is much to celebrate this World AIDS Day. In AIDS by the numbers, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reports that there has been a 33% decrease in new HIV infections since 2001. There has also been a 29% decrease in AIDS-related deaths since 2005.

Tuberculosis has been a global public health emergency since 1993.In 2006 WHO launched the Stop TB strategy, which was linked to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 target of reversing the spread of tuberculosis by 2015.WHO's Global Tuberculosis Report 2013, published on Oct 23, provides a comprehensive assessment of the current tuberculosis pandemic, and assesses progress in implementing tuberculosis services and control measures at country, regional, and global levels. The report details some striking successes towards achieving MDG 6 and related 2015 targets for global tuberculosis control. It also identifies specific areas of concern for which urgent political and funder attention is required.

The report details the role that gold mining has in driving the TB epidemic in southern Africa, and calls for a step up in political and corporate will for developing a coordinated international response to the disease.

Between September and October 2013, among 91% of the 2,342 public health facilities contacted, a shocking one in five health facilities reported experiencing a stock out or shortage of ARVs and/or TB medicines within the previous three months. 

GENEVA – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced new results today that show a substantial increase in the number of people being treated for HIV, in the distribution of insecticide-treated nets to combat malaria and in treatment for TB.

A low CD4 cell count increases the risk of immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (IRIS) for people starting antiretroviral therapy (ART) within two weeks of treatment for tuberculosis (TB), investigators report in the online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The timing of antiretroviral therapy had no impact on the risk of IRIS for people with a CD4 count above 50 cells/mm³. 

Inside US Trade[1] and the USTR[2] have announced that the U.S. is floating new proposals on IP in its marathon Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations. Although the U.S. touts its new proposals as being balanced, as prioritizing access to medicines, and as recognizing the interests of developing country negotiating partners, particularly, Peru, Vietnam, Mexico, and Malaysia, its actual proposals offer modest temporary respite at best from only a small fraction of U.S. demands. 

27 November 2013 - New York - The Community Research Advisors Group (CRAG) is seeking nominations for new members.

In cases where there is a serious disease like TB meningitis, the index of suspicion for MDR-TB should be very high

Process illustrates collision between public health, politics.