
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports for the first time that the number of people falling ill with tuberculosis (TB) each year is declining. New data, published today in the WHO 2011 Global Tuberculosis Control Report, also show that the number of people dying from the disease fell to its lowest level in a decade.
On September 16, the 4th International Workshop on Clinical Pharmacology of Tuberculosis Drugs was held adjacent to the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) which was held from September 17 to 19. Between the two meetings, there were many updates related to TB drug development. Additional links to TB R&D are included.
This week, we provide an brief overview of research supported by CNRS, INSERM, Institut Pasteur and other donors providing new evidence of the role of Zinc in the body’s immune response to intracellular infection by M.tb. and the microbe’s strategy to subvert this defense. Additional links to TB R&D news are included.
Over the last week, some announcements have been released concerning new tools, publications and meeting materials that may be of value to the TB community including materials from the WGND sponsored “Essentiality of Pyrazinamide” Workshop, an interactive map of clinical trials from PACTR, and a new Collaborative Framework for Care and Control of Tuberculosis and Diabetes from the WHO and The Union.
The United Nations (UN) released a report on July 12 on the progress made thus far on the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The eight MDGs include: end poverty and hunger, universal education, gender equality, child health, maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, environmental sustainability, and global partnership. Key highlights and additional coverage on the report are included.
This week we have an article by researchers from Portugal that suggests that in the case of resistance conferred by plasmids that in some cases resistant bacteria increases its ability to replicate and overall fitness compared to susceptible bacteria. This may complicate research and control efforts to address the rising problem of multi-drug resistance. Additional links to TB R&D News are included.
This week, we review a recent article published in the July issue of IJTLD on the TB drug candidate OPC-67683 whose new generic name is delamanid. Diacon, et al., present data showing that delamanid is safe, well-tolerated with significant early bactericidal activity. Links to additional TB R&D news is included.