Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Global Fund to transfer management of HIV/AIDS grant in Mali after investigation finds misuse of funds

"The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will transfer management of a $28.77 million HIV/AIDS grant from Mali's national AIDS council, the Haut Conseil de Lutte contre le Sida (the High Council for the Fight Against AIDS, or HCLNS), to a new principal recipient at the end of the year" after mismanagement of funds was discovered in the country, a Global Fund press release reports.

21 Oct 2011

Starting HIV therapy within two weeks of TB treatment increases survival by 33%

Timing is everything when treating patients with both HIV and tuberculosis. Starting HIV therapy in such patients within two weeks of TB treatment, rather than two months as is the current practice, increases survival by 33 percent, according to a large-scale clinical trial in Cambodia led by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and the Immune Disease Institute.

20 Oct 2011

Link between development of new lymphoid tissue within the lung and protection against TB

New research from the Trudeau Institute may help in the ongoing fight against tuberculosis. Dr. Andrea Cooper's lab has discovered a connection between the development of new lymphoid tissue within the lung and protection against the disease.

19 Oct 2011

Russia pledges money to support HIV, TB programs in neighboring countries

"Russia plans to step up its international role in fighting infectious disease across eastern Europe and central Asia, in what some observers see as the latest effort by the Kremlin to reassert its political influence over its former Soviet neighbors," the Financial Times reports.

19 Oct 2011

Report estimates human impact of cuts to U.S. global health spending over next five years

"Thousands of lives and years of gains made against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria could be lost if proportional reductions are made to achieve the $1.2 trillion in spending reductions required by the Budget Control Act of 2011," according to a report issued on Monday by the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), the Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports.

19 Oct 2011

Globe and Mail reports on death of Zambian HIV/AIDS advocate Winstone Zulu

Toronto's Globe and Mail reports on the death on Thursday of Winstone Zulu, an HIV/AIDS advocate from Zambia who lived with the virus for two decades. "His death has devastated the international community of AIDS activists," the newspaper writes.

18 Oct 2011

New treatment approach for septic Listeria infection

Research underway at the Trudeau Institute could lead to new treatments for people sickened by Listeria and other sepsis-causing bacteria. Dr. Stephen Smiley's laboratory has published a study in the scientific journal Infection and Immunity that supports a new approach to treating these infections.

18 Oct 2011

Emergency grant to end U.S. AIDS drug crisis gets rejected

The Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has notified the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) that an application it submitted on behalf of the United States for an emergency grant of $50 million to end the ongoing AIDS drug crisis in the U.S. is being rejected because, as one of the wealthiest nations in the world, "the United States is not eligible for funding from the Global Fund."

14 Oct 2011

Study finds vitamin D is critical in human immune response to tuberculosis

"Vitamin D is needed to activate the immune system's response to tuberculosis (TB)," a finding that "could lead to new treatments for the lung disease," researchers from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) said in a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine, Agence France-Presse reports.

14 Oct 2011

New insights into how adenovirus triggers an immune response

A Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study could lead to improved gene therapies for conditions such as heart disease and cancer as well as more effective vaccines for tuberculosis, malaria and other diseases.

13 Oct 2011

University of Cape Town, UT Southwestern sign affiliation agreement

UT Southwestern Medical Center and the faculty of health sciences of the University of Cape Town in South Africa, signed a five-year affiliation agreement today to collaborate on faculty and student exchanges, joint research and training activities and other educational opportunities.

13 Oct 2011

WHO says global TB cases decline for first time ever but warns funding gap, resistant strains put progress is at risk

New data published in the WHO's 2011 Global Tuberculosis Control Report on Tuesday, "shows that the number of people who fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) dropped to 8.8 million in 2010, after peaking at 9 million in 2005," the U.N. News Centre reports.

13 Oct 2011

TB rates decline for the first time: WHO report

According to Mario Raviglione, director of the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Stop TB program, for the first time, the number of people infected with tuberculosis (TB) each year is declining. He was speaking at a press conference to release Global Tuberculosis Control 2011, WHO's 16th annual report on TB, which summarizes advances made and challenges ahead. The report features data on TB in nearly 200 countries with treatment results and financing trends.

12 Oct 2011

Smoking could cause 18M more cases of TB worldwide over next 40 years

Smoking could cause 18 million more cases of tuberculosis worldwide over the next 40 years and 40 million additional deaths.

12 Oct 2011

Vitamin D plays an essential role in the body's fight against TB

Not just important for building strong bones, an international team of scientists has found that vitamin D also plays an essential role in the body's fight against infections such as tuberculosis.

12 Oct 2011

ASHG to honor U of U geneticist with William Allan Award

As a teenager just moved to Iowa from war-ravaged Germany in 1951, John M. Opitz, M.D., wanted to study developmental biology, but his "very Prussian" mother insisted he go to medical school instead.

12 Oct 2011

Huffington Post profiles UNITAID chair

The Huffington Post profiles Philippe Douste-Blazy, U.N. under-secretary-general of Innovative Financing for Development and chair of UNITAID, a financing mechanism he conceived in 2004 to help provide medicines for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries.

7 Oct 2011

Keeping HIV patients on ART will have long-term economic benefits, study shows

Investments to keep 3.5 million people living with HIV on antiretroviral drugs provided by programs co-financed through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria through 2020 will cost an estimated $14.2 billion, but "the financial savings would amount to between $12 billion and $34 billion," according to a study published in the journal PLoS One, Sarah Boseley reports in her "Global Health Blog" in the Guardian.

7 Oct 2011

Lipomannan on TB bacterium's outer cell surface can block TNF production

The bacterium that causes tuberculosis has a unique molecule on its outer cell surface that blocks a key part of the body's defense. New research suggests this represents a novel mechanism in the microbe's evolving efforts to remain hidden from the human immune system.

4 Oct 2011

Despite increase in cases, awareness of male breast cancer is low

Awareness of male breast cancer is low and most men do not even know they are at risk despite an increase in cases, reveals new research from the University of Leeds.

3 Oct 2011