Researchers have successfully developed and tested a combination of simple clinical, radiological and laboratory tools to diagnose smear-negative tuberculosis.

Maseru, Lesotho – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced today that it is signing two grant agreements with the Ministry of Finance of Lesotho totaling US$17 million, to allow Lesotho to expand prevention and treatment of HIV and multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Tuberculosis incidence (the new-diagnosis rate) fell sharply from 2002 through 2010 among HIV-positive heterosexual adults in England and Wales, most of them black Africans. But the 2010 rate remained significantly higher than in the general population.

Rockville, MD, US, Oxford, UK and Basel, Switzerland - May 7, 2013 - Aeras, a nonprofit biotech advancing TB vaccines for the world, the University of Oxford and Okairos, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in T-cell vaccines, today announced a $2.9 million grant to Aeras in support of a collaboration among the three parties to support the development of vaccines against tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.

A handheld diagnostic device that Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators first developed to diagnose cancer has been adapted to rapidly diagnose tuberculosis and other important infectious bacteria. 

A mobile Médecins Sans Frontières tuberculosis (TB) surgery mission has successfully completed surgery on six drug-resistant (DR) TB patients in Yeravan, Armenia – the first mobile TB surgery ever carried out by the international humanitarian medical organisation.

Imagine a new diagnostic test that needs people to only breathe into a device and in six minutes flat, they would be told if they have tuberculosis (TB) or not. With India earning notoriety for being the world’s TB capital and current sputum detection tests that require at least 24 hours for results, such a device would be greatly appreciated. Bringing this technology to the city is a team of three researchers from Lonavla’s Sinhgad College of Pharmaceutical Sciences. They recently won an international competition, Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Canadian government and have been awarded $1 lakh (Rs54 lakh) for optimisation and validation of the test in India.

Together, let’s use this great opportunity to put TB higher on the political agenda of the EU!

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) today announced a funding injection of up to £5m from the Wellcome Trust to support its open approach to discovering and developing urgently needed new treatments for diseases of the developing world.