March 24, 2014
Today is World Tuberculosis Day 2014. The focus of this year’s World TB Day is on ensuring that the estimated 3 million people infected with TB annually who are unable to get the required treatment have access to adequate care. In honor of this day, we have compiled and categorized major news, publications and other multimedia items on tuberculosis from the past year. Click below to jump to a category:
CDDEP in the news
March 7, 2014: CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan was quoted in an article underscoring the threat of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in India, saying that the country s national TB program was stuck in the 1990s. [IPS News]
June 3, 2013: A Livemint article on drug resistance quoted CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan as saying, The MDR-TB problem in India cannot be ignored unless we are prepared for an even bigger problem down the road.” [Livemint]
May, 2013: CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan discussed the increasing threat of drug-resistant TB in part 2 of a film series on TB produced by Aeras. [Aeras]
May 27, 2013: On the blog Ideas for India, CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan and fellow Arindam Nandi presented research on how India could treat TB more cost-effectively. [Ideas for India]
April 10, 2013: A new model-based study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine showed that isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to prevent tuberculosis among HIV infected individuals, who do not show symptoms of tuberculosis, increased the incidence of isoniazid-resistant TB in communities where they were implemented. An article on the study in Nature quoted CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan as saying that countries that have not yet implemented IPT should keep this caution in mind. [Nature, Voice of America]
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The increasing global threat of drug-resistant TB
March 19, 2014: International aid group Doctors Without Borders released a crisis alert highlighting the global threat of drug-resistant tuberculosis. The organization said urgent action was necessary to address the problem. [VOA]
March 5, 2014: Health officials in California, which has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis in the United States, have been struggling to prevent TB from entering into the US from Mexico. [Al Jazeera]
February 8, 2014: Around 100,000 cases of tuberculosis have been reported in Lohata, an area in India s Uttar Pradesh province known for the production of saris. The conditions for sari weavers, who work in cramped, poorly ventilated rooms, have been highlighted as a major cause of the spread of the disease. (A photo gallery of the crisis in Lohata can be accessed in the multimedia category.) [Huffington Post]
January 26, 2014: Drug resistant tuberculosis was reported to be spreading in Russia, with nearly half of all TB isolates in a study reported being multidrug-resistant and 16% showing resistance to second-line drugs. [Nature]
January 16, 2014: The discharge of patients with extensively drug-resistant and sometimes totally drug-resistant tuberculosis from hospitals in South Africa exposed communities to potentially deadly infections and increased the spread of resistant TB bacteria in the country. [Reuters]
January, 2014: A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested 84 acid-fast bacilli smear-positive sputum samples from patients previously treated for TB in Zimbabwe and found that 20 (24%) of these specimens were consistent with multidrug-resistant TB. This suggested that the country was in urgent need of a national drug resistance survey to determine the prevalence of MDR-TB. [CDC]
November 26, 2013: Highlighting the growing threat of multidrug-resistant TB, Newsweek wrote that tuberculosis was the cause of 1.3 million deaths worldwide in 2012 and remained a leading cause of fatalities from contagious illnesses, second only to AIDS. [Newsweek]
October 23, 2013: The WHO s Global tuberculosis report 2013 showed that while the incidence of TB was declining, cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR) infections, estimated at 450,000 globally during 2012, were on the rise, and about 3 million people infected with TB were left undiagnosed and untreated. The WHO also recommended addressing the threat of MDR-TB with urgency as one of the five priority actions. [WHO, UN News Center]
August, 2013: In an interview with EurActiv, Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO s Global Tuberculosis Program, talked about infectious diseases and suggested that the European Union (EU) help Eastern European countries control the increasing number of infections in those countries. [EurActiv]
July 30, 2013: A study published in PLoS Medicine identified drug-resistant TB as a major public health threat in North Korea: 87% of 245 patients analyzed in this study were found to have multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. [The Atlantic]
July 2, 2013: NPR discussed the difficulty of treating drug-resistant tuberculosis in children, especially in the context of developing countries like Tajikistan. [NPR]
July 1, 2013: A Scientific American article explored how the tuberculosis bacteria may be evolving into a new bug that is far more deadly, spreads more quickly and is more likely to become resistant to treatment with antibiotics. [Scientific American]
June 17, 2013: The Times of India reported on the severe shortage of pediatric and drug-resistant tuberculosis drugs in India. [Times of India]
June 3, 2013: NPR documented the troubles faced by two TB infected families, one of which was in Boston and the other in Moldova. [NPR, NPR]
April 25, 2013: The New Yorker wrote on the history of tuberculosis, including the current threat of drug-resistant strains. [The New Yorker]
March 25, 2013: The New York Times reported on the emergence of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in Australia. [NY Times]
March 21, 2013: A study published in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that the number of annual tuberculosis cases in the US had fallen below 10,000 for the first time since the 1950 s but the cases of drug-resistant tuberculosis were rising. [NPR]
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Innovative approaches used to combat TB
March 19, 2014: India s Central TB division launched a mobile application, named Nikshay, which makes notifying TB cases simpler and quicker. In the pilot phase of the project, general practitioners in Mumbai will be testing the application, which will also update the central server in order to avoid duplication. [DNA India]
March 19, 2014: A new study published in The Lancet found that China s shift in treating TB from hospitals to public health centres, which implemented the directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) strategy, helped reduce the country s TB prevalence by more than half during 1990-2010. [BBC]
July 25, 2013: The FDA approved marketing of the first test for simultaneously detecting tuberculosis and the presence of drug-resistant tuberculosis in the US. This test, which is quicker and less complex to perform than previous FDA-approved tests to detect tuberculosis, had been endorsed by the WHO on December 8, 2010 and had already been used in a number of countries. [FDA]
July 9, 2013: NPR s All Things Considered published a story on an innovative program, named Sputnik, to control multidrug-resistant TB in Russia: in this program, teams of nurses traveled in mobile clinics in the Russian city of Tomsk to find and treat patients, who would otherwise not adhere to treatments. [NPR]
July 3, 2013: A Hindustan Times op-ed discussed India s new strategies for providing tuberculosis care, including the newly proposed Standards for Tuberculosis Care in India and Nikshay, a database to track and manage tuberculosis related data. [Hindustan Times]
March 23, 2013: The Huffington Post wrote on the success of eCompliance, an electronic, biometric tool to ensure that health workers can accurately follow-up with all TB patients. [Huffington Post]
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Research and recommendations on (potential) approaches to combat TB
February 17, 2014: While doctors traditionally waited to administer antiretroviral drugs to patients suffering from both tuberculosis and AIDS due to fears about the effects on patients lungs, a new study showed that simultaneous treatment for both diseases increased survival rates. [NY Times]
January 8, 2014: Results from research published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine showed that patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis may be able to be treated with a transfusion of stem cells created from their own bone marrow. [Reuters]
October 1, 2013: A new report titled Roadmap for Childhood Tuberculosis: Towards Zero Deaths launched by a number of global agencies, including the WHO and the US CDC, outlined immediate actions that could prevent the deaths of more than 74,000 children attributed to TB annually. [VOA]
September 18, 2013: New research published in ACS Chemical Biology uncovered a new strategy for killing TB bacteria by inhibiting the cellular enzyme ClpP, which current drugs didn t target. [Infection Control Today]
September 8, 2013: Three new tests to quickly and accurately detect extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, a form of TB that is resistant to almost all anti-TB drugs, were reported. [MedPage Today]
August 27, 2013: Disposable microneedle patches to diagnose TB were tested on guinea pigs and were found to be a simpler, more reliable and painless alternative to the traditional injection, according to new research published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. [The Engineer]
August 13, 2013: An op-ed published in The Hindu examined the history of TB control in India and called for strategic improvements. [The Hindu]
August 4, 2013: New research in Nature Medicine described the development of a new compound that used a novel mechanism of action to successfully treat drug-resistant TB infections in mice. [Nature Blog]
June 24, 2013: Mark Dybul, executive director of the Global Fund, explained that defeating infectious diseases like AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria required a special focus on the human rights of the most vulnerable populations, who face an increased risk of infection and a lower quality of care because they are criminalised and at the margins of society. [Thomson Reuters Foundation]
June 17, 2013: Researchers identified a new anti-tuberculosis compound, named as TCA1, that killed different strains of the tuberculosis bacterium, including extensively drug-resistant strains, in cell-cultures and in mice, according to a study published in the journal PNAS. [Scripps Research Institute]
June 13, 2013: The World Health Organization issued an interim guidance on the inclusion of bedaquiline, a new tuberculosis drug with a novel mechanism of action, in the combination therapy of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). [WHO]
May 21, 2013: Research published in the journal Nature Communications described a mechanism through which high doses of vitamin C produced oxidative radicals that could, in lab cultures, kill drug-resistant TB bacteria. [The Scientist]
May 15, 2013: Highlighting the shortage of TB drugs in the US, amidst funding cuts for the disease, an article in Bloomberg called for a strengthening of the US s public health system to deliver essential TB services in the US and abroad. [Bloomberg]
May 1, 2013: NPR highlighted efforts by a nonprofit in Tanzania to train African rats to detect TB by sniffing the patients sputum, with a reported success rate of 32%, which was similar to the 30-40% success rate of microscopy tests. [NPR]
April 15, 2013: A Health Affairs blog post reviewing the problem of fake and substandard drugs in the battle against tuberculosis urged for a global treaty on fake and substandard medicines. [Health Affairs]
March 25, 2013: PLoS Blogs summarized recent research published in PLoS journals on strategies to control TB and newly identified risk factors for TB infections. [PLoS Blogs]
March 21, 2013: Science Speaks reviewed the burden of TB, and the challenges and innovative approaches needed to contain TB in India. [Science Speaks]
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Finances and costs
September 12, 2013: According to a report released by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, the agency required $87 billion USD in 2014-2016 to provide services to all the vulnerable populations in eligible countries and to avoid millions of unnecessary deaths and much higher investments in the future.
August 15, 2013: A new study in the European Respiratory Journal stated that the economic burden of TB far outweighs the likely costs of investing in much-needed research to develop more effective medicines and vaccines. Estimating that TB imposed direct costs of more than 500 million and an additional 5.3 billion euros in productivity losses in Europe, the study also warned that these costs will rise as the number of drug-resistant TB infections rises. [Voice of America]
July 8, 2013: An article in Nature Medicine stated that the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium and other major TB research organizations would experience budget cuts up to 30% in the upcoming year as a result of the US federal sequester, delaying treatment trials and shutting down clinics. [Nature Medicine]
June 10, 2013: The European Union and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced a collaboration to develop treatments for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other poverty-related diseases. [EurActiv]
May 27, 2013: On the blog Ideas for India, CDDEP Director Ramanan Laxminarayan and fellow Arindam Nandi presented research on how India could treat TB more cost-effectively. [Ideas for India]
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Other research and articles
November 18, 2013: Livemint wrote an informational article on tuberculosis and the importance of adhering to the extended treatment regimen required for the illness. [Livemint]
August 21, 2013: New research published in the journal PLoS Pathogens that analyzed 63 genomes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and related pathogenic mycobacteria from around the world found evidence of strong purifying selection and identified different patterns of variation across categories of gene function. The study suggested that these two factors, combined with the TB bacterium s high degree of tolerance for beneficial mutations, have contributed to TB s rapid spread and the evolution of drug-resistant strains of TB. [Science 2.0]
July 16, 2013: At Abuja +12, the African Union s Special Summit, leaders from African countries reviewed the past progress against HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, and pledged actions for further improvement. [UNFPA]
July 8, 2013: Summarizing the differences between tuberculosis and its drug resistant forms, an NPR article answered some common questions about the disease. [NPR]
July 8, 2013: A meta-analysis of factors correlated with delays in TB diagnosis and treatment in China found that individual factors such as poverty, rural residence, lack of health insurance, lower educational attainment, stigma and poor knowledge of TB, and health facility factors that include limited availability of resources to perform prompt diagnosis, lack of qualified health workers and geographical barriers were the main reasons for the delays. [Infection Control Today]
July 5, 2013: Research published in the journal PLoS Pathogens showed that ethnic differences in the patient s genetic make-up caused most of the variation in immune responses [to TB] with little effect of the TB strain they are infected with. [Asian Scientist]
March, 2013: The Financial Times published a special report titled Combating Tuberculosis 2013, which contained several op-eds and reports on the current state of the disease. [Financial Times]
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Multimedia items
February 8, 2014: The National published a photo gallery on the tuberculosis crisis in Lohata, Uttar Pradesh, India. [The National]
February 7, 2014: A CDDEP graphic showed the countries with the highest estimated cases of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in 2012. [CDDEP]
January 3, 2014: Bioartist Anna Dumitriu, whose pieces focus on microbiology and resistant bacteria, recently spoke with CDDEP about her work and her upcoming exhibit on tuberculosis. [CDDEP]
July 1, 2013: Scientific American published a slideshow highlighting the proliferation of dangerous strains of tuberculosis. [Scientific American]
June 9, 2013: An educational video from Stanford School of Medicine and Khan Academy explained strategies to prevent the transmission of tuberculosis, while another video described the different types of drug resistance in TB. [Khan Academy]
May 25, 2013: film series from Aeras, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development of an effective tuberculosis (TB) vaccine, explored the rising danger of drug-resistant TB. [Scientific American]
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