Almost four months after doctors at the PD Hinduja Hospital found 12 tuberculosis patients to be “totally” drug resistant, the hospital has reported two more such cases. The latest patients, who are from Mumbai, have not been responding to both first and second line of treatment, said doctors. They also said three of the original 12 cases diagnosed by them have not been responding to treatment.

Uganda is one of the world's 22 high burden countries for tuberculosis (TB). Despite having a national treatment program for drug-sensitive TB, there has been an emergence of drug-resistant strains of the disease, which are presenting a new and urgent threat to people's health. So far in Uganda, 226 cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) have been confirmed, spread across 40 districts, but the true figure is likely to be much higher.

An international convention on research and development for neglected diseases has never been so closely within reach. A World Health Organization expert group is recommending the implementation of a legally binding instrument to secure new sources of funding to spur health research in areas where the current system has failed.

17 April 2012 - Johannesburg - Tuberculosis (TB) champion Gerry Elsdon has just completed a gruelling two-week walking campaign across South Africa to raise awareness about TB and encourage people to get tested for the disease.

FDA approved rifampin for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in 1971, the same year Intel Corporation invented the first microprocessor.

Tuberculosis incidence was 44% lower in HIV-positive people in high-income countries who started antiretroviral therapy (ART) than in those who did not. But the protective effect of ART did not extend to people older than 50 or with a CD4 count below 50 cells/μL.

An analysis by think tank Results for Development concluded that the Medicines Patent Pool as established by UNITAID could speed up development of fixed-dose combination pills, paediatric medicines and heat stable formulations needed in resource-poor settings, as well as help stimulate generic manufacture of lower cost medicines. And that it will need a critical mass of companies to participate in order to succeed.

Open letter regarding Cepheid pricing of the GeneXpert machines and cartridges for high-burden settings in the public and private sectors.

A team of researchers, led by Dr. Stephan Schwander, of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey - School of Public Health (UMDNJ-SPH), has determined a possible link between exposure to a common component of urban air pollution and a change in the function of important immune cells that protect against the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). Writing in the Journal of Immunology, the scientists describe their findings that exposure to diesel exhaust particles (DEP) suppresses the function of phagocytic immune cells (a type of white blood cells that ingest foreign particles, such as bacteria) on a cellular level. They conclude that this exposure probably causes exposed individuals to be less able to fight off new Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections or to suppress a reactivation of a latent infection by these bacteria.

Press release
April 11, 2012
Kyiv