Tuberculosis was declared a global health emergency in 1993, but it has been growing unchecked. Today, TB is causing millions of deaths every year globally. Like any infectious disease, TB is prevalent even in developed countries. But it is a more serious problem in the developing and populous countries.

People living with HIV who have a history of active tuberculosis (TB) have a significant risk of the recurrence of the disease, investigators report in the online edition of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

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Cape Town — In the face of the growing threat of tuberculosis that is resistant to standard medication, researchers are calling for renewed efforts to find a vaccine to prevent TB, while other initiatives are developing new medicines and diagnostic tools to fight the disease.

Aeras released its annual report, an interactive website detailing the real cost of TB and highlighting progress in TB vaccine development. There is also an interactive infographic designed to convey the scale of the TB problem globally.

For a complete course description and application information, please visit http://www.currytbcenter.ucsf.edu/LTBI.

The Government of India's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) and Vigyan Prasar have announced an initiative calling for submissions of YouTube videos on the topic: "The need for new tuberculosis (TB) drugs." According to the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), "A shorter [anti-TB] drug regimen would reduce lost work-time and lessen the economic impact of TB on individuals' lives, and in turn help stabilize families, save and enrich the lives of millions of children, and enable a healthier, more productive labor force in many TB-endemic countries."

This week sees the launch of the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2012. This annual report provides the latest data and analysis about the tuberculosis epidemic and progress made in prevention, care, and control of the disease from 182 member states and a total of 204 countries and territories with over 99% of the disease burden. As well as improvements in measurement and reporting, which include more country and prevalence surveys, for the first time the burden of tuberculosis in women and children and estimates of lives saved by the implementation of collaborative tuberculosis/HIV activities are documented. The report is a sobering read with good and bad news.

The new data published in the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2012 show clear signs of progress. Despite signs of progress at the global level, the new WHO report shows that TB continues to have a stranglehold on Africa, especially among women living with HIV and AIDS.

The Republic of Moldova has a considerable TB problem. In 2011, out of a population of 3 million, 4,208 people were diagnosed with TB. Compare this to the 3,528 people diagnosed with TB in Germany, out of a population of 82 million, and the alarming rate of TB in Moldova really hits home. Moreover, Moldovan has a high burden of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) that makes tackling the problem significantly more difficult. 19 percent of all new cases of TB in Moldova are estimated to be MDR and 51 percent of all retreated cases.