The 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health and the HIV section of the Union are pleased to announce co-sponsorship of a late-breaker session related to HIV/TB. Starting this year the HIV section of the Union will be sponsoring this new late-breaker focusing on HIV/TB at every Union world conference.

Innovative and potentially game-changing clinical trials to develop new drug regimens to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB), the second leading global infectious disease killer, are in jeopardy due to federal "sequestration" funding cuts. New CDC-funded TB treatment study findings were announced today in Philadelphia at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting where, paradoxically, CDC scientists and participants were unable to attend. CDC TB experts were almost entirely absent from the ATS International Conference this year, also due to the implementation of federal budget sequestration. The new research findings unveiled by the Tuberculosis Clinical Trials Consortium (TBTC) at the ATS Conference today show a promising way forward for shortening the current six month treatment regimen down to a three to four month regimen.

African health ministers last night drew up a list of priority measures needed to accelerate the response to tuberculosis (TB) in sub-Saharan Africa.

African mineworkers are at significant risk of becom- ing resistant to tuberculosis (TB) treatment, and those that are resistant can be included in the estimated 650 000 cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) worldwide, of which fewer than 10% are accessing treatment, notes the Stop TB Partnership secretariat’s senior strategist, Joel Spicer.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health problem. It causes ill-health among millions of people each year and ranks as the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide, after the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

This is the second phase of a grant totaling $19,357,000 whose implementation started in 2011, the UNDP reported.

Access to medicines issues finally back on negotiators’ agenda after being sidelined for more than a year

As the world marked another International Women’s Day celebrated March 8 every year this gives the world opportunity to reflect on how to ensure equal rights and opportunities for women and girls in terms of access to healthcare, education and social ammenties. According to WHO Tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS and maternal causes, are the three top killers of women of reproductive age globally. TB is a global health burden which countries are trying to control but the good news is that it is curable. It is one of the opportunitistic infections people living with HIV have to battle and this is never a pleasant experience for them especially the women folks.

In 2011, tuberculosis killed 1.4 million people worldwide, almost as many as died from HIV/AIDS. And death isn’t the only damage TB does.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have mapped the coordinates for all the proteins of the tuberculosis pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Thanks to this “atlas”, scientists are now able to easily find and accurately measure every protein of this bacterium that causes dangerous lung diseases.