Tuberculosis News and Research RSS Feed - Tuberculosis News and Research

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection caused by a germ called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but they can also damage other parts of the body. TB spreads through the air when a person with TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes or talks. If you think you have been exposed, you should go to your doctor for tests as soon as possible. You are more likely to get TB if you have a weak immune system.
JPIDS releases consensus statement of Sentinel Project on Pediatric Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

JPIDS releases consensus statement of Sentinel Project on Pediatric Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

The Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society today released its June issue, which includes a consensus statement of the global Sentinel Project on Pediatric Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis. [More]
Vitamin C kills drug-resistant TB bacteria in lab

Vitamin C kills drug-resistant TB bacteria in lab

In a striking, unexpected discovery, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have determined that vitamin C kills drug-resistant tuberculosis bacteria in laboratory culture. [More]
TB clinical drug trials in jeopardy due to federal sequestration funding cuts

TB clinical drug trials in jeopardy due to federal sequestration funding cuts

Innovative and potentially game-changing clinical trials to develop new drug regimens to prevent and treat tuberculosis, the second leading global infectious disease killer, are in jeopardy due to federal "sequestration" funding cuts. [More]
Government of Equatorial Guinea to improve all hospitals in the country

Government of Equatorial Guinea to improve all hospitals in the country

The government of Equatorial Guinea is working to renovate all the hospitals in the country within the next four years, according to Minister of Health Tomas Mecheba Fernandez Galilea. [More]
New LAMP malaria test to improve diagnosis for imported UK cases

New LAMP malaria test to improve diagnosis for imported UK cases

A new, highly sensitive blood test that quickly detects even the lowest levels of malaria parasites in the body could make a dramatic difference in efforts to tackle the disease in the UK and across the world, according to new research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. [More]
Viewpoints: When a doctor should keep quiet; 2 views of hospital pricing; Stem cell 'snake oil'

Viewpoints: When a doctor should keep quiet; 2 views of hospital pricing; Stem cell 'snake oil'

In medical school, we were taught not to withhold information from our patients or to be "paternal" in making decisions for them. We internalized the idea that fully informed patients are better equipped to make treatment decisions. [More]
Viewpoints: A nurse finds getting coordinated care for her husband challenging; Iowa legislator outlines problems with Medicaid; Researcher's quest to save experiments after sandy

Viewpoints: A nurse finds getting coordinated care for her husband challenging; Iowa legislator outlines problems with Medicaid; Researcher's quest to save experiments after sandy

In 2011, my husband, Eric, a trial attorney, was felled by a brain stem stroke just before he was to board a flight at O'Hare in Chicago. He was just 53 years old with no prior health conditions or problems. From the outset, we knew his recovery and rehabilitation would be long and difficult. We didn't know that his transition to post-hospital medical care would be just as challenging. [More]
FDA approves Novartis' Ilaris for treatment of active systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis

FDA approves Novartis' Ilaris for treatment of active systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis

Novartis announced today that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved Ilaris (canakinumab) for the treatment of active systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis in patients aged 2 years and older. [More]
AHF, KANCO organize NO RETREAT ON AIDS march to call for more global HIV/AIDS funding

AHF, KANCO organize NO RETREAT ON AIDS march to call for more global HIV/AIDS funding

Concerned that key partners in the fight against HIV & AIDS like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief are losing funding due to government cuts, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, in conjunction with Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium, have organized a NO RETREAT ON AIDS march from Jevanjee Gardens to Uhuru Park on Friday May 10, 2013 to protest the loss of lifesaving and much-needed funding. [More]
ITM researchers develop, test a combination of tools to diagnose SN-TB

ITM researchers develop, test a combination of tools to diagnose SN-TB

Researchers at the Institute of Tropical Medicine have successfully developed and tested a combination of simple clinical, radiological and laboratory tools to diagnose smear-negative tuberculosis. [More]
Cubist receives Fast Track designation from FDA for late-stage antibiotic candidate

Cubist receives Fast Track designation from FDA for late-stage antibiotic candidate

Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted the Company's late-stage antibiotic candidate ceftolozane/tazobactam (CXA-201) Fast Track status in the previously granted Qualified Infectious Disease Product indications, Hospital-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia/Ventilator-Associated Bacterial Pneumonia and Complicated Urinary Tract Infections. [More]
Aeras receives grant to support the development of vaccines against TB, HIV and malaria

Aeras receives grant to support the development of vaccines against TB, HIV and malaria

Aeras, a nonprofit biotech advancing TB vaccines for the world, the University of Oxford and Okairos, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in T-cell vaccines, today announced a $2.9 million grant to Aeras in support of a collaboration among the three parties to support the development of vaccines against tuberculosis, HIV and malaria. [More]

Public-private partnerships can help advance global health goals

"Three people die every minute from tuberculosis -- a treatable and largely preventable disease. Resistant forms continue to thrive, and increased travel makes the global threat very real. We face a public health emergency," Vince Forlenza, chair, CEO, and president of the medical technology firm Becton, Dickinson and Company, writes in the Harvard Business Review Blog Network. [More]

Congress should maintain support of global health programs 'despite fiscal challenges'

"U.S. support for global health has had a major impact around the world, particularly our contributions to fighting malaria through the President's Malaria Initiative and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria," Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.), co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Steve Davis, CEO of PATH, write in a Washington Times opinion piece. [More]

Continued work needed in vaccine development

Reflecting on World Immunization Week, April 21-28, Angeline Nanni, director of market access at Aeras, discusses the "remarkable results" of expanded immunization programs in a guest post on the Global Health Technologies Coalition's "Breakthroughs" blog. [More]
Collaborative research network to understand spread of infectious diseases

Collaborative research network to understand spread of infectious diseases

The Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study is a collaborative research network funded by the National Institutes of Health that uses computational, statistical and mathematical models to understand the spread of infectious diseases such as influenza, pertussis, West Nile disease, dengue fever and cholera. [More]

Al Jazeera programs examine vaccine funding, efforts to fight malaria, TB, HIV

Al Jazeera's "Inside Story" on Friday examined whether funding and political will can keep pace with efforts to vaccinate every child worldwide. The 25-minute video program, "with presenter Shiulie Ghosh, discusses with guests: Kate Elder from Doctors Without Borders; Adel Mahmoud, a global health specialist at Princeton University, and former president of Merck Vaccines," Al Jazeera writes. [More]
Ocular tuberculosis presents a diagnostic challenge

Ocular tuberculosis presents a diagnostic challenge

Mycobacterial ocular inflammation typically arises without concomitant systemic or pulmonary disease and should be suspected in patients who do not respond to anti-inflammatory therapy. [More]

Continued political, financial support needed to reduce global malaria incidence

"With the globally agreed target of reversing the incidence rate of malaria by 2015 now in sight, top United Nations officials [on Thursday] urged the international community to stay committed to protecting people from this preventable disease and to scale up key interventions such as the provision of insecticide-treated mosquito nets," the U.N. News Centre reports, noting April 25 marked the annual World Malaria Day, with this year's theme, "Invest in the future. Defeat malaria." [More]

U.N. urges sustained support for prevention, treatment activities on World Malaria Day

On World Malaria Day (April 25), the U.N. "warned ... that malaria maintains its impact on less developed countries, mainly in Africa, where millions of people lack needed attention," and in a message marking the day, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "urged political leaders and health authorities of states where malaria is endemic to keep their commitment to achieve universal access to prevention and treatment of malaria". [More]