Health experts believe the risk of developing tuberculosis is three times higher for people who have diabetes than people who do not.

Tuberculosis, now largely controlled in the industrialized world, remains a stubbornly persistent killer in most of Africa, as well as parts of Asia and South America. The spread of multidrug-resistant strains of TB has slowed progress against the devastating disease, which is estimated to strike more than 10 million people annually. Now a modified soft-drink cooler, developed by researchers at MIT’s D-Lab, could make a dent in the disease’s impact.

Reducing tuberculosis transmission in geographic “hotspots” where infections are highest could significantly reduce TB transmission on a broader scale, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. An analysis of data from Rio de Janeiro showed that a reduction in TB infections within three high-transmission hotspots could reduce citywide transmission by 9.8 percent over 5 years, and as much as 29 percent over 50 years. The study was published May 28 by the journal PNAS.

In this guest post, Jamie Elizabeth Rosen—media & communications manager at Aeras—discusses a new effort to develop a novel tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidate.

Immune Network Ltd. (IMMFF:PK), announces that Immunitor presented one month trial results in 106 patients with tuberculosis who were given daily pill of oral Mycobacterium vaccae therapeutic vaccine (V7). The data were summarized in a poster at “Drug Resistance and Persistence in Tuberculosis” of the Keystone Symposia Global Health Series, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. The meeting took place on May 13-18, 2012 at Speke Resort & Conference Centre, Kampala, Uganda.

HIV prevalence fell sharply among children admitted to one of South Africa’s largest hospitals in 2009 and 2010, but remained high at 19.3%, researchers from Chris Hani Baragwanath (CHB) hospital in Soweto report in the advance online edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes.

It's a new digital world for a public health problem that still relies heavily on 19th century technology: x-rays sent by mobile phone for while-you-wait diagnosis, text messages with health advice for pregnant women and a mobile banking scheme that rewards doctors for finding new patients.

HIV & AIDS treatment in practice (HATIP) is a regular email newsletter for healthcare workers and community-based organisations on HIV treatment in resource-limited settings.

Open letters to Otsuka, Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency.