Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Science special issue reports on Malaria

This week's issue of Science features news articles focusing on recent progress on malaria control in Africa and discussing future challenges, including drug resistance.

15 May 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

As the 193 WHO member states gather at next week's World Health Assembly (WHA) "a draft global code of practice on the international recruitment of health personnel will be on the agenda. Negotiation and adoption of a WHO code of practice is an unprecedented opportunity to advance global consensus to address the critical challenges of migration of health workers and its effect on health systems worldwide," the authors of a Lancet Comment write.

15 May 2010

Scientists look for new ways to fight TB

Scientists looking for new ways to fight tuberculosis have their sights set on a structure essential to the bacterium's survival. Disabling this structure could kill the microbes in the infected host and thwart TB infections. In a study appearing online May 11, 2010, in EMBO J, the journal of the European Molecular Biology Organization, scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, Stony Brook University, and Weill Cornell Medical College describe new features of how this structure, known as a proteasome, is put together and how it works.

14 May 2010

Scientists to discuss opportunities and challenges for combating HIV, TB

As alarms sound about a weakening international commitment to global AIDS, scientists will gather in Washington, DC to report on potentially transformative new tools in the battle against this deadly epidemic. US policy is moving backwards at a time when the science is more promising than ever.

14 May 2010

Emergent BioSolutions named Biotechnology Firm of the Year at TCM's Annual Tech Awards

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced today that it has been named Biotechnology Firm of the Year at the Tech Council of Maryland's Annual Tech Awards. This award acknowledges the company that best exemplifies the spirit of Maryland's biotechnology community as well as its presence and leadership within the state.

14 May 2010

Novel vaccines for deadly diseases to be presented at AAPS' NBC

Novel vaccines for diseases ranging from the flu to HIV highlight a week's worth of biotechnology research at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' National Biotechnology Conference. Scientists from academia, industry, and government will gather at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square Sunday, May 16 -Thursday, May 20 to share research and advances in biotherapeutics.

14 May 2010

Pacific Island region on track to meet TB MDG, drug-resistance remains a threat

Experts at the Fifth Pacific Stop Tuberculosis Meeting in Nadi, Fiji, concluded that the Pacific Islands region is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving TB prevalence by 2015, All Headline News reports in an article about the meeting, which recently concluded.

13 May 2010

Globe and Mail special issue examines Africa, includes look ahead at G20 meeting, interview with Pres. Obama

The Globe and Mail examines Ethiopia and Malawi's role in next month's G20 talks in Toronto, Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has invited both countries to participate in the meeting, which could significantly affect Africa because it has become the "premier forum for confronting global economic problems and for co-ordinating solutions," according to the Globe and Mail.

11 May 2010

Potential new drug therapies for treatment of tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) has been present in humans since ancient times. The origins of the disease date back to the first domestication of cattle, and skeletal remains show prehistoric humans (4,000 B.C.) had TB. Although relatively rare in the United States, it is the single leading bacterial cause of death worldwide. Approximately 8 million people are infected each year and 2 million people die from TB.

11 May 2010

Intercell reports EUR 4.8m revenue, EUR 14.7m net loss for first-quarter 2010

Today, the biotech-vaccine company Intercell AG announced its financial results for Q1 and presented an update on the Company's development programs.

11 May 2010

Improving newborn care in first month of life essential for reducing child mortality

Improving newborn care in the first month of life is essential for reducing child deaths in developing countries, according to a global update on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) released today in the World Health Statistics 2010.

11 May 2010

New findings could help develop vaccines against respiratory infections

Inducing cellular immunity as a means to protect against influenza virus is the focus of several laboratories at the Trudeau Institute. Researchers here have recently identified two important signaling components required by the immune system that might allow us to pre-position our own virus-fighting T cells to the lungs, the site of initial infection.

11 May 2010

New York Times examines global fight against HIV/AIDS

Several articles in the New York Times examine the global fight against HIV/AIDS. "Uganda is the first country where major clinics routinely turn people away" because they lack funding, the newspaper writes in an article that reports "money for [HIV/AIDS] treatment has stopped growing."

11 May 2010

Scientists develop dry, inhalable measles vaccine, will begin testing in India this summer

CBSNews.com reports on the development of a dry, inhalable measles vaccine by researchers at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder), who hope that their work will "help pave the way for the inexpensive treatment of a range of other illnesses" (Cooper, 5/5).

10 May 2010

MIT, South Africa announce plans to join patent pool for 'neglected diseases'

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and South Africa's Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) will join the Pool for Open Innovation against Neglected Tropical Diseases, Science|Business reports.

10 May 2010

Darwin may have lost his own children due to ill effects of inbreeding

Charles Darwin whose theories on evolution have been the basis of all that we know about the evolution of mankind and genetics may have lost his own progeny to inbreeding says a new study.

6 May 2010

CU-Boulder develops inhalable vaccine for measles prevention

A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado at Boulder believe a dry powder, inhalable vaccine developed for measles prevention and slated for human clinical trials later this year in India will lead to other inhalable, inexpensive vaccines for illnesses ranging from tuberculosis to cervical cancer.

6 May 2010

Advocates ask donor nations, African Governments to maintain health commitments as WEF on Africa starts

As the 2010 World Economic Forum on Africa begins Wednesday in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, advocates from more than 10 African countries plan to "stage a demonstration" highlighting the need for funding for HIV/AIDS and other diseases, health-e reports (Thom, 5/5).

6 May 2010

Emergent Biosolutions reports decreased revenue in 2010 first quarter

Emergent BioSolutions Inc. announced today its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. For the first quarter 2010, total revenues were $46.8 million as compared to $64.5 million in 2009, and net income was $2.5 million, or $0.08 per share, as compared to $11.1 million, or $0.37 per share, in 2009.

6 May 2010

Archivel Farma to start phase II clinical trials of RUTI vaccine for Latent Tuberculosis

Archivel Farma, S.L. has announced that its breakthrough treatment for tuberculosis (TB) will shortly start phase II clinical trials. The treatment uses the company's unique combination of its novel therapeutic vaccine called RUTI® in conjunction with an antibiotic. This cuts treatment time from nine months to one month, which reduces side effects and healthcare costs, by preventing re-infection during the eradication process. The company expects commercial availability in 2015.

5 May 2010