Treatment Action Group’s leader Mark Harrington did not mince words Saturday at a consultation meeting on HIV and tuberculosis (TB) co-infection preceding the 2012 International AIDS Conference in Washington.

We often cite the fact that tuberculosis (TB) fueled the spread of HIV in southern Africa, said Diane Havlir, MD, of the University of California at San Francisco and co-Chair of the 2012 International AIDS Conference (IAC). But AIDS also shaped the enormous spread of TB seen in southern Africa during the late 80s and ’90s as a sweeping increase in HIV/AIDS occurred simultaneously, she said.

As of the end of the first quarter of 2012, nearly 864,000 GeneXpert MTB/RIF rapid tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic cartridges had been procured under manufacturer Cephied’s concessional pricing mechanism.

UNITAID is inviting letters of intent (LOI), or short conceptual presentations of a proposed project, on the topic of improving access to key preventive, diagnostic and treatment commodities for HIV, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria through market-based approaches.  UNITAID works to negotiate low pricing for diagnostics and medication for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in developing countries and is funded primarily by an airline levy in participating countries.

Science Speaks continues its interview series exploring the global HIV and tuberculosis research and development efforts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with a conversation with Bess Miller, MD, MSc, who works in the Division of Global HIV/AIDS. Dr. Miller has served as associate director and team lead for HIV/TB, providing leadership in policy and implementation of TB/HIV activities in 43 resource-limited countries supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  She has worked to align PEPFAR TB/HIV priorities with the World Health Organization (WHO) policies on TB/HIV, and on the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in people living with HIV (PLHIV). 

Former tuberculosis (TB) patients from around the world  offered a unique glimpse at the impact of the disease on individuals, and the toll it takes on family and friends, by telling their personal stories at an event hosted by The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in late March to honor World TB Day.

Otsuka Pharmaceutical is the top private funder of tuberculosis (TB) research and drug development in the world. Last year, Otsuka established a Geneva-based subsidiary – Otsuka SA – to serve as “the company’s central operations for developing and implementing public health policies and corporate social responsibility programs in connection with its global TB program,” according to the company’s website.

The following is a guest blog post by Dr. Lucica Ditiu, executive secretary of the Stop TB Partnership, commenting on the newly released document Tuberculosis Vaccines: A Strategic Blueprint for the Next Decade, reflecting the consensus of members of the TB vaccine research and development community to develop new vaccines that could help stop TB in our children’s lifetimes.

In advance of World TB Day (Saturday, March 24) Science Speaks sat down with tuberculosis (TB) expert Lee B. Reichman, MD, MPH, founding executive director of the New Jersey Medical School Global Tuberculosis Institute, to discuss the spread of drug-resistant TB and what he thinks are the most promising advances coming down the scientific pipeline.  Dr. Reichman has published more than 200 articles, scientific reviews and book chapters focusing on the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, control, regimen adherence and epidemiology of and advocacy for TB. He also co-authored the book Timebomb: The Global Epidemic of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis with Janice Hopkins Tanne in 2002.

At the 19^th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle, Dr. Helen Ayles presented some key results on behalf of the ZAMSTAR team from the first randomized trial of a combined HIV and TB intervention strategy to demonstrate a reduction in population prevalence of tuberculosis.