DOTS Not Enough When it Comes to TB in South Africa

Dr. Robin Wood, director of the Desmond Tutu HIV Centre in Cape Town, has many startling slides to illustrate the astronomical problem of tuberculosis in South Africa—from photos of desperately poor, overcrowded shantytowns in the Western Cape to graphs that document the escalating rates of HIV/TB co-infection in his native country.
But there’s one image that [...]

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South Africa’s Health Problems Put Under the Lancet’s Microscope

When it comes to health-related news, South Africa is usually a source of grim tales and bleak statistics, from the declining life expectancy rates to the escalating threat of HIV/TB co-infection.
A just-published series of articles in The Lancet documents, in relentless detail, the health challenges that South Africa currently faces. But the Lancet articles also [...]

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New vaccine would revolutionize the fight against tuberculosis…if funding is available

How could the world dramatically lower the incidence of tuberculosis and save millions of lives? 
An effective TB vaccine would revolutionize the response to TB, which kills about 5000 people each day, and eliminate the need for lengthy and often difficult drug treatment.   
An effective vaccine would be of tremendous benefit all over the world, including in the [...]

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The G8’s Declaration on Global Health

Global health may not have been at the top of the agenda at the Group of 8 summit in Italy today, but it wasn’t ignored either.
In their declaration today, G8 leaders noted that progress on global health has not been as significant as hoped and they reaffirmed previous commitments, most notably the $60 billion investment [...]

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A Call for Urgent Action to Address HIV/TB Co-infection

Leading disease experts will call on President Obama and Congress to mount a concerted and comprehensive response to the deadly alliance between HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis at a Capitol Hill briefing this Thursday, June 25. 
The call to action from America’s top HIV/TB scientists and physicians comes in conjunction with the release of a new report, “Deadly [...]

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Let Us Showcase Your Work, Send Us Your Stories

 
As policymakers in Washington make vital funding and program decisions on global health, we need to showcase the work of global HIV/AIDS and TB scientists and physicians who are on the front-lines of preventing and treating these twin global epidemics.
 
We’re looking for compelling stories about what’s happening in the research labs, the clinical trials, the field [...]

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Nothing to sneeze at

It’s not enough, but Congress did provide a small surprise boost in bilateral TB funding for this fiscal year-padding the FY09 appropriations bill with an extra $7.5 million for combating global tuberculosis.
Overall, the bill includes $162.5 million for global TB, a little more than the $155 million global HIV/AIDS & TB advocates had anticipated. That’s [...]

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