The Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) announced today the receipt of supplemental funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, totaling over half a million dollars to augment the multi-million dollar award made last year as part of the Foundation’s Tuberculosis (TB) Drug Accelerator program. The purpose of the original grant, titled "Chemical genomics for the identification of targets and leads in tuberculosis", is to identify new leads and new drug targets suitable for further drug development, with the ultimate goal of producing new drugs to treat TB. The additional funding will allow IDRI to expand its activities and leverage increased participation by the pharmaceutical community in tuberculosis drug discovery.

Tuberculosis (TB) in children is often a neglected issue, in terms of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring prevalence. The best numbers we have are from the World Health Organization (WHO), according to Mandy Slutsker of ACTION, an international partnership of global health advocates. The WHO reported in 2009 that every year more than 1 million children get infected and about 176,000 die as a result. However, since most cases go unreported, the numbers are likely much higher, she said.

• Collaboration to create molecular test assessing a person's risk for latent TB progressing to active TB, enabling early treatment and disease outbreak prevention
• QIAGEN strengthening its leading infectious disease portfolio with development of DNA-/RNA-based test that complements QuantiFERON-TB Gold test for latent TB
• New assay will use whole blood transcription profiling - a new diagnostic technology developed at the Max Planck Institute's Department of Immunology
• New molecular test to be run on the QIAsymphony modular automation platform

ROCKVILLE, MD, USA/BEIJING, CHINA, January 10, 2012 – The global fight against the tuberculosis epidemic receives a boost today as Aeras and the China National Biotec Group (CNBG) announce that they have reached final agreement to jointly develop new tuberculosis (TB) vaccines. The agreement between the leading non-profit developer of TB vaccine candidates and the largest biotechnology corporation in China signals a commitment by both to engage and strengthen the role of China in the fight against one of the world’s deadliest infectious disease killers.

This letter is meant to help ensure greater attention is paid to TB-HIV at this year’s International AIDS Conference. The Joint Program Committee for the Conference will be meeting again in Washington on January 18^th. You can send the name of your group to David Bryden (Stop TB Advocacy Officer, RESULTS) at: [email protected].

For the first time in India, 12 people have been detected with totally drug resistant lung tuberculosis (TDR-TB), a condition in which patients do not respond to any TB medication, at PD Hinduja Hospital in Mahim. The mortality rate for this strain of the infectious disease is 100%.

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to pose a threat to Turkish society, according to a statement from the undersecretary of the Ministry of Health.

GENEVA, Switzerland – On the sidelines of a conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, just three months ago, a senior health official from Belarus met privately with Mario Raviglione, whose job here at the World Health Organization’s headquarters is to control the spread of tuberculosis around the world.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infection caused by bacteria that usually affect the lungs. These bacteria, called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, can be passed on to another person through tiny droplets spread by coughing and sneezing. Even the accidental spread of saliva through laughing, singing, and spitting can pass on the TB bacteria.