Response by Medicines Control Council to letter by Global TB CAB on bedaquiline.

Early detection of drug resistance constitutes one of the priorities of tuberculosis (TB) control programmes. It allows initiation of the appropriate treatment in patients and also surveillance of drug resistance. Associated with this problem is the emergence of multi-drug–resistant (MDR) and extensive drug-resistant (XDR) strains of M. tuberculosis.

Research released by the Copenhagen Consensus Center identifies TB as a key priority for infectious disease control in terms of cost effectiveness and disease burden.

Phumeza Tisile's favourite book, Redeeming Love, is about hope because that is what helps her get out of bed each day.

South Africa's new national strategic plan for health, which will for the first time include treatment of TB alongside HIV, has been hailed for its forward thinking.

Athens, Ga. – Christopher Whalen, the Ernest Corn Professor of Epidemiology in the department of epidemiology and biostatistics in the University of Georgia College of Public Health, has received a five-year, $2.82 million grant to understand how tuberculosis is transmitted in urban environments in Africa.

A briefing and update on tuberculosis (TB), a disease that is curable but still takes the lives of 4,000 people each day and is the number one killer of people living with HIV. Special areas of focus of the briefing include US global leadership on TB, how communities are addressing the crisis, the threat of drug-resistant TB, and progress towards an effective vaccine, better medications and faster diagnostics.

Despite a request by non-government organisations for the drug to be made available for compassionate use, the Medicines Control Council has refused.

27 April 2012 - Lelystad, The Netherlands and Rockville, USA - The Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative (TBVI) and Aeras have signed a new memorandum of understanding to enhance and strengthen collaborative efforts to advance the world’s most promising tuberculosis (TB) vaccine candidates.

Stephen Lawn reminded the audience at the International Treatment as Prevention Workshop in Vancouver on Wednesday that antiretroviral therapy (ART) goes a long way to protect HIV-infected individuals from tuberculosis (TB). The HIV-associated TB epidemic requires “radical interventions,” according to Lawn.  “DOTS [directly observed TB therapy, short course] just isn’t doing it.”