Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Atlantic examines drug-resistant TB control worldwide

The Atlantic examines the emergence of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis around the world, with a look at the situation in South Africa. "[T]he resurgence of tuberculosis is not limited to South Africa. India and China have the largest numbers of tuberculosis cases, and multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has been found in nearly every country, with XDR [extensively drug resistant]-TB in at least 57 countries," according to the article.

18 Jan 2010

Aid begins flowing into Haiti, up to 3m may be affected

"Aid started flowing into Haiti Wednesday in the wake of the earthquake that slammed the impoverished nation late Tuesday afternoon," CNN reports. "One of two [U.S] military cargo planes carrying a 30-man assessment team arrived at Port-au-Prince airport Wednesday evening to assess Haiti's needs."

17 Jan 2010

NVHR supports IOM report on inadequate federal funding for chronic viral hepatitis

With today's release of a landmark study by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Hepatitis and Liver Cancer: A National Strategy for Prevention and Control of Hepatitis B and C, finding that inadequate public-health resources are being allocated to national and local prevention, control, and surveillance programs, the National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable (NVHR) today renewed its call for the Administration, Congress, and the entire health care system to take immediate and decisive action to implement the report's key recommendations.

12 Jan 2010

Proteus Biomedical signs worldwide license and collaboration agreement with Novartis

Proteus Biomedical Inc., a pioneer in intelligent medicine, entered into an exclusive worldwide license and collaboration agreement with Novartis to develop and commercialize pharmaceutical products that incorporate Proteus’ novel sensor-based technologies in the field of organ transplantation.

12 Jan 2010

U.S. changes HIV policy to allow foreigners with virus to enter

Los Angeles Times: "Last Monday, for the first time in 22 years, foreigners with HIV were legally allowed to enter the United States without their infection status being considered. Before that, even short-term visitors had to receive special permission — or lie on their visa application — to come here.

12 Jan 2010

PEPFAR's second five-year phase will strengthen healthcare systems

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, has praised the recent announcement that the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) will increase its emphasis over the next five years on strengthening health systems in developing countries.

From BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) 9 Jan 2010

Development to be 'central pillar' of U.S. foreign policy, Clinton says

In a speech on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that it is time to "elevate development as a central pillar of all that we do in our foreign policy," United Press International reports (1/6). According to Reuters,

8 Jan 2010

H1N1 can spread during commercial flights; avoid economy and fly first class, UCLA researchers say

Viruses love plane travel. They get to fly around the world inside a closed container while their infected carrier breathes and coughs, spreading pathogens to other passengers, either by direct contact or through the air. And once people deplane, the virus can spread to other geographical areas.

8 Jan 2010

LSUHSC receives $2.1 million grant for pneumonia research

Dr. Jay Kolls, Professor and Chairman of Genetics at the LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans School of Medicine, has been awarded a $2.1 million grant over five years by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health to further his work on a discovery that plays a critical role in the body's defense against pneumonia.

8 Jan 2010

Additional birth weight decreases risk of developing tuberculosis later in life

Researchers at the University of Michigan looked at how much protection additional birth weight added against developing the disease years later. They found that every 1.1 pounds of birth weight decreases the risk of developing tuberculosis later by 46 percent among identical twins.

7 Jan 2010

Reuters examines TB in China

Reuters examines efforts to control tuberculosis in China, which has the "world's second largest tuberculosis burden after India." The news service writes, "China has 4.5 million TB cases currently; and each year 1.4 million people fall ill with the disease. TB killed 160,000 people in China in 2008, according to the World Health Organization."

7 Jan 2010

U.N. leaders, HIV advocates laud official end to HIV travel ban

A travel ban in place since 1987 that prevented non-U.S. citizens with HIV/AIDS from entering the country officially ended Monday, The Hill's "Blog Briefing Room" reports (Romm, 1/4).

6 Jan 2010

AP series examines worldwide impact of drug resistance

The Associated Press reports on how the misuse of drugs worldwide has contributed to drug-resistant diseases in a series of articles following a six-month investigation by the news service.

5 Jan 2010

Highlights from Mayo Clinic's Discovery's Edge research magazine

Here are highlights from the winter issue of Discovery's Edge, Mayo Clinic's research magazine.

24 Dec 2009

Microbial Pathogenomics: A collection of reviews and future trends in bacterial pathogenomics

'Microbial Pathogenomics' contains a unique collection of reviews demonstrating how genomics has revolutionized our understanding of virulence, host-adaptation strategies and the evolution of bacterial pathogens. Current technologies - computational tools and functional approaches to genome analysis - are carefully documented and clearly illustrated.

23 Dec 2009

MSU researchers expand global health outreach

Expanding Michigan State University's global health outreach, a team of researchers is working in the Dominican Republic to establish a model for HIV/AIDS care that can be exported to other resource-limited countries.

23 Dec 2009

Guardian Technologies International meets and presents SM TBDx to Indian healthcare officials

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a serious global pandemic health threat with more than 9 million new cases diagnosed annually. TB is a leading cause of mortality in India, killing nearly 1,000 people each day.

23 Dec 2009

Opinions: Community-based health care models; U.S. leadership in reproductive health care

"We don't need to start fresh to create patient-centered medical homes. We just need to look to community-based models of care that are effective but often go unrecognized," according to a Boston Globe opinion piece by Heidi Behforouz, the director of the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment project, which is based on "a model that Partners in Health pioneered to fight HIV in rural Haiti and drug-resistant tuberculosis in Peru."

22 Dec 2009

Also in Global Health news: HIV prevention in China; Global Fund in Philippines; drug-resistant TB; U.S. stance on anti-gay legislation

"A gay bar partially funded by the government of a Chinese city heavily affected by AIDS has finally opened after a delay caused by intense media interest which the owners felt may scared off potential patrons," Reuters Life! reports. The bar in the southwestern city of Dali is a collaborative effort by the city's health department and two NGOs, according to the news service (12/21). "The venue aims to provide a place where homosexuals can meet in a relaxed atmosphere and get information about HIV/AIDS prevention," Agence France-Presse reports (12/20).

22 Dec 2009

TB bacterium does not contain genes needed for spore formation

But a new study by researchers at Loyola University Health System and other centers casts doubt on the TB spore theory. Researchers were unable to detect spores in TB cultures and demonstrated that the TB bacterium doesn't even contain genes related to those needed to produce spores. Researchers also failed to find any spores in frogs infected with TB bacteria, which would have been expected if TB bacteria produced spores in the course of infection.

22 Dec 2009