The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has awarded Aeras a $299,525 grant to support the discovery of biological and immunological biomarkers for TB vaccines. This funding will be used to continue assessments of a novel mycobacterial growth inhibition assay that could drastically reduce the time and cost of developing new vaccines against tuberculosis.

Delamanid, an investigational drug to combat tuberculosis, improves outcomes and reduces mortality among patients with the multidrug resistant form of the disease.

South Africa’s Medicines Control Council will continue to deny compassionate access to bedaquiline that for many drug resistant patients is their last hope.

Global Fund supported programs have since 2002 detected and treated 9.3 million new smear-positive cases of tuberculosis.

HIV infection, tuberculosis (TB) treatment, age, and other factors raised the odds of multidrug-resistant (MDR) invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) over a 5-year study period in South Africa before the pneumococcal vaccine era.

African leaders gather to review progress made in the implementation of the 2001 Abuja Declaration on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases and call for sustainable strategies to advance health towards 2015 and beyond.

Researchers in New Zealand are inching closer to the development of the first effective oral vaccine to protect against tuberculosis - a disease which still kills more people worldwide than any other bacterial disease.

A paper-based device about the size of a postage stamp could improve testing for drug-induced liver toxicity in the developing world, researchers reported.

Read the press release here.

Johannesburg - SA’s drug regulatory authority is placing unreasonable hurdles in the way of desperately ill and dying patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis, stopping them from accessing a new drug that offers their only hope.