Maputo, Monday 11 March 2013 - Dr Philippe Douste-Blazy, the Chair of UNITAID Executive Board, announces today in the presence of the Minister of Health, Dr Alexandre Manguele and other key partners, the roll-out of new innovative technologies to quickly and efficiently diagnose and monitor HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in Mozambique.

The webinar is focused on the relationship between HIV and tuberculosis, and the implications for the well-being of gay men and other MSM.

First approval for new tuberculosis drugs paves the way for better combinations of new and old agents.

The search for a cure for deadly infectious diseases has led Brian Murphy deep underwater.

Cape Town - In his first official visit to South Africa as Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Mark Dybul met with President of South Africa Jacob Zuma to discuss advancing the fight against these infectious diseases in the country.

The World Trade Organization committee on intellectual property rights met this week and addressed a request by least developed countries for an extension of the period to enforce WTO intellectual property rules. LDCs want that the extension be extinguishable only after a country ceases to be considered as ‘least developed’, which developing countries largely supported. Developed countries, however, were hesitant about the terms of the proposed extension.

A new two-drug combination of rifapentine and moxifloxacin can allow tuberculosis (TB) treatment to be taken once-weekly during the four-month continuation phase, Dr Amina Jindani of St George’s University Medical School, London, told the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2013) in Atlanta, on 6 March.

Rifampicin, a key drug in tuberculosis (TB) treatment, can be tolerated at much higher doses than used in current clinical practice – suggesting that much higher drug levels may lead to a more rapid treatment response, allowing the treatment course to be shortened without the need for new drugs in first-line treatment, according to findings presented at the 20th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2013) in Atlanta this week.

ATLANTA, GA — Andreas Diacon from Stellenbosch University in Cape Town updated the audience at the 2013 CROI  on Wednesday about the status and challenges in TB drug development.  The good news is that while still inadequate, the TB drug pipeline is larger than it has been in decades.