AIDSCAREWATCH Monitor

TB Alert

 

From the Campaign Trail

TB ANYWHERE IS TB EVERYWHERE

By, Stop TB Partnership, March 2007

TB ANYWHERE IS TB EVERYWHERE is the theme for 2007 World TB Day, March 24th, offering a message of urgency and shared responsibility. Through unified action on all levels, we can work towards a world finally free of tuberculosis.

The 2007 theme TB ANYWHERE IS TB EVERYWHERE emphasizes that although TB is a preventable and curable disease, it remains a global emergency. The theme reflects the chronically inadequate investment in TB control, surveillance, research and development as well as TB's deadly synergy with HIV. more...

Feature Story

Humanity's formidable enemy

By, Belinda Bereseford, Mail & Guardian Online, January 15, 2007

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the “mother of all pathogens”, able to create all its essential nutrients, eat its own cell wall without dying, and hide within the cells sent to kill it for decades. Under various names, including the “white plague” and consumption, TB has been around for thousands of years, with Egyptian mummies showing traces of it. A third of humankind is estimated to be infected by the bacillus, which is thought to kill two million people a year, with a new TB infection occurring every second. Yet humanity confronts this talented adversary with inadequate diagnostic tests a century old, a poor vaccination developed 70 years ago, and drugs at least 35 years old.  more...

Global Highlight

Multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis epidemic may be larger than previously thought   
By, Joe Santangelo, Lancet, December 20, 2006

The epidemic of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB) may be larger than previously suspected, according to an Article in The Lancet. The study found anti-TB drug resistance in virtually all of the 79 countries surveyed, with particularly high levels in areas of the former Soviet Union and some provinces of China. About a third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, 8.9 million people develop the disease annually, and in 2004, 1.7 million deaths occurred. The emergence of drug-resistant strains occurs with the wide misuse of antimicrobials. MDR-TB is defined as resistance to at least the two most potent anti-TB drugs, isoniazid and rifampicin. In 1994, the Global Project on Anti-Tuberculosis Drug Resistance Surveillance was set up to determine the prevalence, patterns, and trends of anti-TB drug resistance around the world.  more...

ACW Perspective

New diagnostics help fight tuberculosis - FIND and Hain Lifescience Plan Worldwide Demonstration Projects

By, Medical News Today, January 14, 2007

The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and Hain Lifescience (Hain) announced today that the Hain "GenoType® MTBDR plus" test, a new improved molecular test for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), has been approved in Europe and that they have signed an agreement to begin large-scale demonstration projects of the test in high burden countries. The announcement came just two months after an initial agreement between FIND and Hain Lifescience to fast-track the development of a new tool to address the recent outbreaks of MDR-TB and extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). In the case of MDR-TB, the TB-bacilli are resistant to rifampicin and isoniazid, two of the most important drugs used to treat TB. XDR-TB organisms are also resistant to at least three "second-line" TB drugs used when "first-line" treatment has failed. more...

Spotlight

Photovoice raises TB awareness in Thailand

By, Masimba Biriwasha, HDN Key Correspondent, March 1, 2007

A community project in northern Thailand named ‘TB Photovoice Thailand’ is using photos and stories to tackle often hidden issues surrounding TB and HIV infection, diagnosis, treatment and coping strategies. The project is proving that a picture can indeed speak a thousand words, but even more than that, it can help influence social change.  more...

ACW Alert

Race to accelerate tuberculosis drug development   

By,  www.news-medical.net, January 14, 2007

Each year, tuberculosis kills nearly two million people while an estimated nine million develop the disease -- with the hardest-hit areas in AIDS-afflicted developing nations. One of the most pressing challenges is the increase in drug-resistant TB.  more...

Real Speak

XDR-TB in South Africa

By, news-medical.net, January 23, 2007

A team of medical ethics and public health experts say tough isolation measures, involuntary if need be, are justified to contain a deadly, contagious, drug-resistant strain of TB in South Africa and to prevent "a potentially explosive international health crisis." In a policy paper in the international health journal PLoS Medicine, Dr Jerome Singh of the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in Durban, South Africa (who is also an Adjunct Professor at the Joint Centre for Bioethics, University of Toronto) and colleagues say that "the forced isolation and confinement of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and multiple drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) infected individuals may be a proportionate response in defined situations given the extreme risk posed."  more...

Glossary

Tuberculosis: An infectious disease caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is primarily an infection of the lungs, but any organ system is susceptible, so its manifestations may be varied. Effective therapy and methods of control and prevention of tuberculosis have been developed, but the disease remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity throughout the world. The treatment of tuberculosis has been complicated by the emergence of drug-resistant organisms, including multiple-drug-resistant tuberculosis, especially in those with HIV infection. more...