Tuberculosis rates in Singapore are much higher than in developed countries in the West, and some experts here believe there is "an urgent need" to cut the time taken to diagnose infectious TB cases at healthcare facilities here.

Symptom screening alone can't rule out tuberculosis in HIV-infected patients, especially if these patients are on antiretroviral medications, new research shows.

The advocates call on the Global Fund Board to adopt an allocation model that responds to regional needs, rather than putting one disease against another.

The experimental nitroimidazole TBA-354, under investigation by the TB Alliance, showed potent activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis in vitro and in animal studies, according to a presentation this week at the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobials and Chemotherapy (ICAAC 2012) in San Francisco.

Technology developed by scientists at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute could halve the time it takes to diagnose tuberculosis infection, and also tell doctors in a day or two whether the bacteria are drug resistant -- a process that currently takes weeks. Initial tests of the device were recently described in Scientific Reports, a Nature online journal.

Tucson, AZ - 10 September 2012 – Critical Path Institute and CDISC (Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium) announce the availability of a breakthrough tool to help combat tuberculosis (TB)—a persistent disease resulting in 1.7 million deaths globally each year.

The Stop TB Partnership is delighted to announce that Mr Thomas Moore has taken up duties as interim Chief Operating Officer of the Global Drug Facility (GDF). Mr Moore will oversee a critical period in GDF’s development, as the secretariat team is restructured and a new strategy unfolds.

On 7 September, World Bank President Jim Kim posted a blog on his recent mission to South Africa: ‘A Great Day in South Africa for a Development Junkie’. In the blog he reflects on his meeting with President Zuma and his ministers and describes the importance of deeper Bank engagement in Africa, including on tuberculosis (TB).

The U.K. recently added India to the list of 67 countries whose citizens must be tested for tuberculosis before entering, citing the huge number of cases in India. The safeguard applies only to visitors planning to stay six months or more.

NEW YORK (September 10, 2012) — An off-patent anti-inflammatory drug that costs around two cents for a daily dose in developing countries has been found by researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College to kill both replicating and non-replicating drug resistant tuberculosis in the laboratory — a feat few currently approved TB drugs can do, and resistance to those is spreading.