HIV activist groups in South Africa are calling on the Minister of Health to address drug supply chain problems which are causing HIV and TB drug stock-outs in the country’s Eastern Cape province.

The position statements focus on the drugs for treating HIV (Janssen, Gilead, Pharmasyntez), HCV (Janssen, Gilead) and TB (Janssen, Pharmasyntez).

Abstract

A low CD4 count, a history of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and past or current pulmonary asthma were among the many independent risk factors for tuberculosis identified in a cross-sectional study in Burkina Faso. Some TB risk factors differed by region.

Most humans would like to shed their fatty exteriors, but tuberculosis (TB)-causing bacteria rely on theirs for survival. Scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)-New Jersey Medical School have now discovered a drug that cripples the TB bug by dissolving its protective fatty coating, a finding that could eventually be used to improve TB treatment in humans. The study has been posted online by Nature Chemical Biology.

KUALA LUMPUR, 18 June 2013 (IRIN) - The global target of a 50 percent reduction in tuberculosis (TB) by 2015 may already have been achieved, but TB remains a neglected disease among women and young children, say health experts.

Researchers at Colorado State University are launching the most realistic study ever conducted into how transmission of the tuberculosis pathogen triggers infectious disease, an investigation expected to yield new insights into a disease that attacks the lungs and kills some 1.5 million people worldwide each year.

Indian government drug tender process leads to deadly delay in drug supply.

LA JOLLA, CA – June 17, 2013 – An international team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has identified a highly promising new anti-tuberculosis compound that attacks the tuberculosis (TB) bacterium in two different ways.

Registration is now open for the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health to be held in Paris on 30 October–3 November 2013. The conference is the largest annual meeting focusing on lung health and related issues as they affect low- and middle-income countries. The theme this year is "Shared air, safe air?"