Cases of multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDR-TB) are rising in the WHO European Region. Every year, around 81 000 people are estimated to fall sick with MDR-TB in the Region but, owing to limited access to diagnosis, only 29 000 were diagnosed in 2010. While 7500 cases of XDR-TB are estimated to occur annually in the Region, only 212 were detected in 2010, owing to limited diagnostic capacity.

Tuberculosis (TB) has emerged as the single leading cause of death from any single infectious agent and has continued to be a major public health problem all over the world.

If approved by the FDA, bedaquiline would be the first drug with a new mechanism of action for TB in more than 40 years and the first and only one specifically indicated for MDR-TB.

Great Basin Corporation, a privately-held molecular diagnostics company developing sample-to-result solutions, announced today that a study published in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology demonstrates its TB ID/R assay to be 96 percent accurate in detecting rifampin-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB). The assay is currently under development to provide rapid diagnosis and drug susceptibility information for TB.

Seegene Inc., a leading developer of multiplex molecular diagnostic technologies and tests, today announced that it will introduce Quantplex(TM) MTB/MDR/XDR Detection, a real time test that detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis and resistance mutations associated with multiple drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) forms of M. tuberculosis at the 2012 American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC) annual meeting, held in Los Angeles, from July 17-19. This new test is based on powerful enhancements to the company's TOCE(TM) technology, called Cleavage Site Specific Extension (TOCE-CSSE), that enables high multiplex mutation detection of disease.

AstraZeneca and Cellworks today announced a collaboration supported by the Wellcome Trust to speed the design of novel combination therapies for the treatment of drug-sensitive and resistant tuberculosis. This collaboration will also pave the way for the creation of platforms and approaches to handle Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB), a condition that is reaching epidemic proportions in many developing parts of the world.

The Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund is undertaking, with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), a health care project in South Africa.  PWRDF will contribute half a million dollars over five years towards the $2 million project that will focus on preventing HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis among pregnant women in the Ngqushwa district of the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

A new diagnostic DNA test has been developed by a team at the National University of Ireland Galway to help in the global effort to control tuberculosis (TB). The rapid laboratory test allows for the identification of the exact bacteria causing a patient’s TB which will give valuable information for their treatment.

Inhibiting a key immune response in mice during initial multi-drug treatment for tuberculosis could — paradoxically — shorten treatment time for the highly contagious lung infection according to new research from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and the Center for TB Research.

The following is a guest post by  Jim Connolly,  president and CEO of Aeras, a nonprofit product development partnership dedicated to the development of tuberculosis vaccines. Aeras is located in Rockville, MD and operates an office in Cape Town, South Africa.