The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a second grant to Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc. and SRI International to continue joint development of an information repository and software to identify novel therapeutics for tuberculosis (TB).

Although TB was close to being eradicated in the developed world, it is a major problem in developing countries. With drug-resistant strains on the increase, Clare Sansom outlines the latest in the fight against this killer disease.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) was strongly associated with a lower incidence of tuberculosis (TB)—regardless of CD4 count when ART began—in an 11-study meta-analysis of TB in HIV-positive adults in developing countries.

The BCG vaccine used to prevent tuberculosis (TB) has a bigger role in protecting children than previously thought, according to an international study led by investigators at Imperial College London and published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. BCG was understood to prevent severe illness from tuberculosis, but not to prevent infection with TB bacteria. Now data collected from five countries in Europe suggest that the vaccine is also effective at preventing infection.

What if I told you that a third of the world’s population is latently infected with a deadly disease? And that the disease has mutated into a more deadly form that can’t be treated with normal drugs? And that, in some places, the disease is completely untreatable? Oh, and that the disease is airborne—just sitting next to someone who has it could be enough to catch it? And although fifty million people worldwide are infected with the mutant form, the only drugs that treat it can make you vomit, lose your hearing, or become psychotic?

Using rifapentine instead of rifampin during intensive phase treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) does not seem to offer a significant advantage.

Cambodia has banned unreliable serological tuberculosis blood test kits due to their rampant and unethical use by private medical practices, government officials and the World Health Organisation said yesterday.

Nevirapine concentrations were substantially lower in Zambian children under 3 years old who were also taking rifampicin-based therapy for tuberculosis. Adjusted nevirapine doses will have to be studied.

Scientists of the Antwerp Institute of Tropical Medicine have breathed new life into a forgotten technique and so succeeded in detecting resistant tuberculosis in circumstances where so far this was hardly feasible. Tuberculosis bacilli that have become resistant against our major antibiotics are a serious threat to world health.

A team of researchers led by scientists at Rockefeller University have discovered that a protein once thought to be mainly involved in antiviral immunity is in fact more important in fighting bacterial infections and could provide new mechanisms for treating diseases like tuberculosis, which is increasingly becoming resistant to antibiotic medication.