Stop TB Partnership Releases Global Plan

Worldwide 9 million people become sick with active TB and 2 million die from it each year; however, yesterday the WHO-hosted Stop TB Partnership released a Global Plan to address the gaps in TB research and to provide new approaches for diagnosis and treatment, including a new rapid TB test.

Over the next five years, the plan, if fully funded by international donors, could cut TB deaths in half. While TB is curable, the current treatment requires that the patient take a combination of drugs for six months. There is still no vaccine to prevent the most common form of the disease, pulmonary TB, and there are many instances of drug-resistance TB. In most countries, labs are still using old methods of diagnostics. The new Global Plan is supposed to address these issues. The Director-General of WHO, Dr. Margaret Chan, believes that the new Global Plan, if fulfilled, will save 10 million lives. There is still a funding gap for this initiative; however, if international donors fill this gap, great progress could be made towards controlling TB.

To learn more about the Stop TB Partnership please go to their website.

-Kelli Hanson

SOURCE: WHO

$300 Microscope Reaches Developing Countries

Researchers at Rice University are developing a fluorescent microscope which can be sold for as little as $300. The microscope operates with a cheap LED light-source, rather than an expensive laser. As compared to a typical $2,000 microscope, this new development means microscopes can be affordably sent to developing countries to diagnose such diseases as tuberculosis. Prior to this development, diseases could not be easily diagnosed until symptoms were well underway.

- Clara Hill

SOURCE: "Microscope Could Help Developing Nations Improve Health Care" - Huffington Post

UN Initiative Aims to Stop Tuberculosis Death Among People With AIDS

Yesterday at the XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, the United Nations and the Stop TB Partnership agreed to step up joint efforts to halve by 2015 the number of people with HIV who die from tuberculosis. TB accounts for one quarter of all deaths among those living with the virus. The two organizations plan to work with civil society organizations, communities affected by TB and HIV and the private sector to form a strong partnership to jointly address TB and HIV. They also plan on making at least two joint visits in the next year to areas heavily affected by the diseases to promote the new initiatives, and to have at least one international event per year promoting the new initiative.

Also at the conference today, the UN Office on Dugs and Crime launched a toolkit on addressing needs for prevention and treatment of HIV and TB in prisons, where there are particularly large populations living with the diseases. The toolkit includes comprehensive HIV care available to all prisoners in the form of prevention, voluntary counseling and testing, antiretroviral treatment, and prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections.

- Clara Hill

SOURCE: "New UN initiative aims to stop tuberculosis deaths among people with HIV" - UN News

TB Hope

For a long time now, it has been believed that a TB vaccine loses its effectiveness and eventually becomes useless. However, a recent study has shown that the vaccine acquires traits that make it ineffective towards the bacteria causing the disease, and these traits can actually be removed, producing stronger immune responses.
Source: UPI.com

New Tuberculosis Drug

XDR TB, an extremely drug resistant strain of TB, has a death rate as high at 100% because it is able to fight off the most commonly used medicines. However, a few weeks ago, scientists have finally discovered a cure for this deadly strain. Two FDA-approved drugs, Clavulanate and Meropenem, work together to overpower the enzyme that usually protects the TB bacteria from antibiotics and then kills the bacteria itself. In 13 different tests, the XDR TB bacteria was killed by the drugs in less than two weeks. Scientists are planning to take their testing beyond the lab, and run some trials on humans. Normally, it takes two years to treat someone with drug resistant TB, so if this process proves successful, it will save the lives of countless people around the world.
Source: Times of India

Expanding Microfinance

Microfinance has proven to be very effective in helping individual families rise out of poverty. With a small loan provided by other people through organizations such as kiva.org, an individual or group of entrepreneurs can start a small business. They repay the loan with their profits, and earn enough money to help feed their families. The success of this strategy has sparked has sparked an interest in microfinance on a larger scale, "growth finance." Instead of small loans to individuals, growth finance would provide loans between $50,000 and $1 million to entreprises in developing countries in hopes that it would help lift the country out of poverty. Last month, a conference was held to discuss the possibility of carrying such an ambitious project. Read more about it here.

Secretary Clinton Committed to Fighting TB

March 24, 2009 was World Tuberculosis Day, a global campaign to build awareness about TB and the severe reality that it takes the lives of 5,000 people each day. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke out against the disease yesterday. Specifically, she talked about the role that the United States should play in combating TB:

"I strongly believe the State Department should continue and expand its commitment to reducing the global burden of TB, and I look forward to working to improve the global response to this and other leading causes of death for the world's poorest communities."

Source: US Dept. of State

US Increases Donation to Health Fund

The US Congress announced yesterday that they will donate $900 million to the United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This $60 million increase from last year's donation is the US' biggest pledge yet to the fund, sending a message to other countries about the importance of investing in people's health globally even in times of financial instability.
Source: UN News Centre