Washington, DC (27 April 2012)—A new report finds that the United States government is the largest funder of global health research and development (R&D) in the world, investing $12.7 billion over the past 10 years in the creation of new vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, and other products for neglected diseases of the developing world. That funding, according to the report, helped lead to the development of more than half of the 45 new health products in the last decade that have been used to save lives around the world.

People who have both tuberculosis (TB) and HIV experience “a unique and overlapping double stigma”, according to research published in the May issue of Social Science and Medicine. Having TB sends a signal that the person also has HIV. As a consequence, identities associated with TB are now strongly influenced by HIV stigma.

MBABANE, 26 April 2012 (PlusNews) - Hospitals are not protecting their workers from tuberculosis (TB) infection, say nurses in Swaziland, who recently staged a rare public demonstration to draw attention to how vulnerable they are to this highly infectious disease.

Kenya is celebrating after a landmark judgment on Friday <20 April> ruled that sections of the Anti-Counterfeit Act 2008 will not apply to generic medicines – protecting access to affordable treatment.

Thousands of children, women, and men die each day from tuberculosis (TB). It is the deadliest infectious disease after HIV, and increasing drug resistance threatens to wipe out medicine’s best weapons against the TB bacterium. New tools to control the disease are needed to bring this global epidemic to a halt and prevent millions from suffering. To this end, we and others drafted “Tuberculosis Vaccines: A Strategic Blueprint for the Next Decade,” which lays out a plan for solving the current problems caused by this ancient disease using one of the most effective and affordable public health tools modern science offers for infectious diseases: vaccines.

The Global Fund is pleased to announce the release of the fourth edition of the Monitoring and Evaluation toolkit. This resource, developed in close collaboration with technical partners and in-country stakeholders, is designed to support the improved monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of HIV, TB, malaria, health and community systems strengthening programs. 

Luanda — Angola's diamond producing eastern provinces of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul lead the tuberculosis growth rate.

Luanda — Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)'s experts are gathered in Luanda since this Monday morning to analyse and prepare the agenda for the Extraordinary Joint Meeting of Ministers of Health, Mining and Employment.