Tuberculosis News and Research

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Potential vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis developed

Development of a fundamentally new "candidate," or potential, vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis), a parasitic disease that kills about 60,000 people annually, is reported in the current issue of ACS Chemical Biology. Spread by the bite of infected female sand flies, visceral leishmaniasis infects about 500,000 people annually, with the majority of cases occurring in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan and Brazil.

26 Apr 2006

Treating populations infected with both HIV and latent TB could speed the emergence of drug-resistant TB

In 2005, 46 regional Ministers of Health in Africa declared that a dramatic rise in tuberculosis (TB) cases was cause for emergency.

19 Apr 2006

Directly observed therapy for treating tuberculosis

Directly observed therapy (DOT) has no quantitatively important effect on cure rates or treatment completion in people receiving treatment for tuberculosis (TB).

18 Apr 2006

WHO report says rich must stop poaching medical staff from poor

A critical shortage of doctors and nurses is causing unnecessary disease and death across much of the developing world as rich nations poach health-care workers.

10 Apr 2006

More than a billion may suffer from vitamin D deficiency

More than a billion may suffer from vitamin D deficiency. Consequences may be more severe than thought. Prominent clinician calls for action.

6 Apr 2006

Responding to AIDS, TB, Malaria and emerging infectious diseases in Burma

Government policies in Burma that restrict public health and humanitarian aid have created an environment where AIDS, drug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria and bird flu (H5N1) are spreading unchecked, according to a report by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

4 Apr 2006

Researchers find compound 10 times more effective than isoniazid, the leading anti-tuberculosis drug

Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have synthesized chemicals that are up to 10 times more effective than isoniazid, the leading anti-tuberculosis drug.

28 Mar 2006

AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and bird flu spread unchecked in Burma

28 Mar 2006

Link between alcohol abuse and dependence with medical conditions in two American Indian reservation communities

Alcohol abuse and dependence are known to be major health problems among American Indians, yet little research has examined alcohol's detrimental effect on organ systems among these populations.

27 Mar 2006

Will the next pandemic be tuberculosis?

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the U.S., drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (TB) are on the rise and present the threat of a pandemic.

26 Mar 2006

Researchers combat tuberculosis - help may come from protective protein

Most Americans think of tuberculosis as a disease of the past, but with HIV and drug-resistant strains fueling epidemics in India and Africa, TB kills someone every six seconds across the world.

23 Mar 2006

International Standards for Tuberculosis Care published

Led by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), a consortium of international health agencies today published on the World Wide Web the first International Standards for Tuberculosis Care (ISTC).

23 Mar 2006

A new strategy to tuberculosis

The new "Stop TB Strategy" addresses the current challenges facing countries in responding to TB - how to continue scaling-up TB control activities while also addressing the spread of TB and HIV coinfection and multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB).

17 Mar 2006

D-cycloserine helps patients learn how to conquer their fears

The fear of public speaking is the most common among individuals with SAD, as well as in the general population. The results of the study are published in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

13 Mar 2006

Details of protein-cleaving complex key to microbe's survival may improve drug design

With the hope of designing more effective treatments for tuberculosis (TB), scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborating institutions have published the first detailed reports on the biochemistry and structure of a protein-cleaving complex that is essential to the TB bacterium's survival.

9 Mar 2006

Fighting the battle against disease - Leeds researchers take on the world

The five-year project will help ensure that the best treatments reach those in most need as quickly as possible, and that effective healthcare systems are established to prevent the spread of disease.

1 Mar 2006

The incidence, distribution, and control of tuberculosis

A reduction in tuberculosis (TB) incidence, prevalence and death rate can be achieved by 2015 in most parts of the world, with the greatest challenges occurring in Africa and Eastern Europe, according to a projection by the Stop TB Department of the World Health Organization.

1 Mar 2006

Is persistent bacterial infection good for your health?

Bacteria are bad. Mothers and doctors, not to mention the cleaning product industry, repeatedly warn of their dangers. But a Stanford University School of Medicine microbiologist is raising the intriguing idea that persistent bacterial and viral infections have benefits.

27 Feb 2006

Why people of African descent are more vulnerable to tuberculosis infection

A team of scientists has identified a cellular mechanism that may help explain the puzzle of why people of African descent are more susceptible to tuberculosis infection and why, once infected, they develop more severe states of the disease than whites.

27 Feb 2006

New generation gold-based drugs for treating rheumatoid arthritis

Gold compounds have been used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases for more than 75 years, but until now, how the metals work has been a mystery.

27 Feb 2006