Bacteria that cause infectious diseases produce a number of cytotoxins, and an international research team has now found the mechanism behind one of these toxins. The new results could make it possible in future to develop new treatment methods to impair the cytotoxic activity and thereby reduce the severity of infectious diseases.

In November 2013 the collaborative infrastructure programme ‘European Research Infrastructures for Poverty Related Diseases’ (EURIPRED) will start in order to reinforce the knowledge infrastructure across diseases. The ultimate aim is to speed the development of new tools (vaccines, drugs, microbicides) to combat Tuberculosis, HIV, Malaria, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C. EURIPRED is co-funded with €8.5M by the European Commission. Scientists from 17 research partners in 10 countries, including TBVI, will collaborate in this new programme.

NEW YORK, November 19, 2013 – At the first meeting of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators since the intellectual property chapter of the secret trade agreement was leaked last week, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urges countries to stand strong against the attack on access to affordable medicines.

Jigna Rao, patient advocate, speaks about patient centered approaches to cure at the TAG symposium “Cascades: Improving TB Care”, held on November 1 during the 2013 Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris, France.

In more bad news for people diagnosed with diabetes, the lifestyle disease has now been linked to an increased incidence of tuberculosis (TB) in patients.

Mumbai, Nov. 13: Drug-maker Sandoz has been asked to recall a batch of wrongly-packaged tuberculosis (TB) drugs from the market. The incorrect packaging was first discovered in Mumbai and the recall will cover five States.

On 13th November, the Global Fund Secretariat organised a consultation at WHO Europe headquarters in Copenhagen to define a regional TB strategy for the implementation of its New Funding Model (NFM) in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA).

A phase I safety study of TB vaccine candidate MTBVAC, the first live-attenuated Mycobacterium  tuberculosis-based vaccine to enter clinical trials, shows very good results in the first intermediate analysis. Although the study is not finished yet, the 36 volunteers did not show any signs of disease or side effects so far. “In my experience, it is one of the safest vaccines ever tested,” says Professor François Spertini of the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV) in Switzerland, the Principal Investigator of the trial. “But a further nine months of investigation is necessary to further validate safety and ascertain whether the vaccine is also effective.”

12 November 2013 - Kabul, Afghanistan - A fire that destroyed the entire stock of tuberculosis (TB) drugs in Afghanistan’s central warehouse threatened to leave TB patients in the country without the medicines needed to continue their treatment. But local and international partners rallied around the national TB programme to provide a swift emergency response.

A body of evidence clearly points out that children aged under five years are at-risk group for getting infected with TB and developing disease very soon after infection. And the severe forms of the disease — disseminated TB and meningitis — afflict the young ones.