TB, which cannot be cured with conventional drugs, is spreading in Eastern Europe. So far, strategies to fight the disease have shown little success because it is closely linked to poverty and exclusion.

An international team of researchers, led by Stephan Schwander, MD, PhD, director of the Center for Global Public Health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health (UMDNJ-SPH), has received a $2.96 million grant to conduct a "real-world" study on the impact of urban air pollution on the human immune system's ability to resist Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). The grant has been awarded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The ''Here I Am campaign'' is a global call on world leaders to save millions of lives by supporting a fully funded Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

On March 9, 2012 the European Respiratory Society (ERS) launched its first ever think tank on tuberculosis (TB): the European Forum for TB Innovation. When we, as prospective authors, sat down to tackle the content layout of this short editorial, we realised that we could not just use the academic tone that commonly characterises scientific articles. The principles that have led the ERS to embrace the discussion surrounding TB innovation transcend science and academic discussion. They are principles originating from the need to re-think TB control in Europe and beyond. We therefore felt that our personal account on how we came to agree to contribute to this new initiative was the only acceptable way of bringing this editorial to life.

The history of treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis can be divided into two eras: before and after the advent of antibiotics. What had been treated but had proven incurable for millennia became curable in the early 1950s, when the combination of streptomycin, para-aminosalicylic acid (PAS), and isoniazid effectively cleansed the body of invading mycobacteria. Subsequently more easily administered, better-tolerated drugs advanced treatment protocols and brought greater benefits. It would be wrong to suggest that drugs were the only solution; education, screening, vaccination, and prevention measures were essential. But the ability to cure transformed the experience and meaning of tuberculosis. What then could these two eras have in common? It turns out that those tasked with caring for the tuberculous needed, and continue to need, the ability to ride out the waves of optimism and realism, even hubris and despair, associated with this ancient enemy, described by the French pathological anatomist G L Bayle (1774—1816) as the “longest and most dangerous of all chronic diseases”.

The shift of HIV testing upstream to include people with presumptive tuberculosis is feasible and could reduce HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis-related morbidity and mortality.

Same-day sputum smear microscopy is as effective as standard smear microscopy for the detection of pulmonary tuberculosis, according to a review commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Anti-tuberculosis treatment (ATT) appears to be both safe and effective in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), data show.

The University of Liverpool has been awarded funding to determine whether differences in our genes determine how patients respond to drugs used to treat Tuberculosis (TB) in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have figured out the three-dimensional shape of the protein responsible for creating unique bonds within the cell wall of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis. The bonds make the bacteria resistant to currently available drug therapies, contributing to the alarming rise of these super-bacteria throughout the world.