Overview

COVID-19 has stalled and is likely to reverse the progress towards ending TB. An article published in Devpolicy Blog summarised the key trends and challenges outlined in the World Health Organization TB reports, and the impact and opportunities of COVID-19 on TB.

To fight tuberculosis, better vaccination strategies are needed. Two recent publications demonstrate the positive effects of alternative mucosal routes of administration on the ensuing innate and adaptive immune responses induced by live mycobacterial vaccines.

-- Project Africa GRADIENT calls on local researchers to submit proposals exploring the link between genetic diversity and response to malaria and tuberculosis drugs in African patients

-- Combined funding commitment of GBP 2.8 million (USD 3.6 million) over five years

-- Researchers based at universities, science councils and other public research organizations across Africa are invited to express ‘intent to submit’ by March 1, 2021

The research team of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Toyohashi University of Technology and the Institute of Food Biotechnology and Genomics at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine have proposed a new drug to treat tuberculosis (TB), utilizing the state-of-the-art molecular simulations. This drug may inhibit the cell division of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) and suppress its growth. In addition, because this drug acts on the enzymes secreted by M. tuberculosis instead of acting on M. tuberculosis itself, M. tuberculosis has very little chance of mutation and develops no drug resistance. Therefore, it is expected that this drug will lead to a novel drug that will keep its effectiveness for a long time.

Scientists in Australia have developed a method for the rapid synthesis of safe vaccines, an approach that can be used to test vaccine strategies against novel pandemic pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

18 January 2021, Geneva, Switzerland – The Stop TB Partnership launched today the Digital Health Technology Hub (DHT Hub), a unifying virtual platform that brings together the organization’s expertise and work in the digital health technology space to support the achievement of the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis (UNHLM on TB) commitments and targets.

The McGill Summer Institute in Infectious Diseases and Global Health announced its 2021 Summer Program.

The Global TB Caucus released a newsletter presenting the key activities and achievements of the Caucus during the second half of 2020.