By Pam CASTRO MANILA, April 12, 2024 (AFP) – A faster and vastly more effective treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis is being rolled out in the Asia-Pacific region, raising hopes of a “new era” in tackling one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. The region had most of the world’s estimated 10.6 million new TB cases in 2022, and more than half of the 1.3 million deaths, World Health Organization (WHO) figures show. While TB can […]
Tag: tuberculosis
AI use in Mozambique jails spawns new hope in TB fight
A programme using artificial intelligence to test inmates in a high security Mozambican jail for tuberculosis has spawned hope that the new tech can help eradicate the disease. Teeming prisons are a hotbed of TB, the world’s second deadliest communicable disease after Covid, according to the World Health Organization. Mozambique, a country of 32 million people, recorded about 120,000 infections last year. Caused by a bacteria that most often affects the lungs, it infected more […]
Global Fund seeks $18 billion to end HIV, TB and malaria
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria will hold a donor conference Wednesday in New York, where it aims to raise at least $18 billion during an event hosted by US President Joe Biden. It is the highest ever “replenishment” goal set by the organization and comes amid rising economic pressures — both on donor countries and recipients — following the Covid-19 pandemic and the food and […]
‘Beginning of the end’: patients hail new treatment for drug-resistant TB
PARIS, France (AFP) – Volodymyr is celebrating a major milestone on Wednesday — it’s his final day of taking a new treatment hailed as a turning point in the fight against drug-resistant tuberculosis. The 25-year-old doctor in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv said he had nasty neurological side effects when he was on a previous drug regimen, which takes up to two years, involves a huge number of pills and is less than 60-percent effective. But the […]
Johnson and Johnson cuts price of anti-TB tablets
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — US pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson announced Monday an immediate cut in the price of its tuberculosis treatment course — a move NGOs have long been calling for. Bedaquiline, sold under the brand name Sirturo, was approved for medicinal use in the United States in 2012, becoming the first new tuberculosis drug in 40 years to be given the green light. Johnson and Johnson said it would make its bedaquiline tablets […]
Researchers move closer to new vaccine for killer TB
by Glenda KWEK Agence France Presse HYDERABAD, India (AFP) — Scientists said Tuesday they are closing in on a new game-changing vaccine for tuberculosis, the world’s deadliest infectious disease that claimed some 1.5 million lives last year. A chronic lung disease that is curable, TB was one of the top 10 killers worldwide last year, particularly in developing countries. The existing Bacille-Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine — licensed for humans in 1921 — is only proven […]
FIFA to organize ‘big event’ in fight against AIDS, malaria and TB
LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFP) — FIFA are organizing an event to raise funds and awareness to tackle AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, their president Gianni Infantino told AFP on Friday. Infantino said the idea was in response to Thursday’s announcement that governments, philanthropists and private firms had pledged just over $14 billion for a plan to save 16 million lives. The money was promised at a replenishment meeting in Lyon, France, of the Global Fund to Fight […]
Things you should know about Tuberculosis
GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — Videographic on tuberculosis. A global plan to tackle the killer disease will be formally adopted at the first-ever TB summit on Wednesday, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York. Meanwhile, The struggle to contain the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is facing a “perfect storm” of challenges, including rebel violence and pre-election manipulation, the UN said. https://youtu.be/BmS3j6Qmi_c
Many doctors in India miss TB signs: study
by Ivan Couronne Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Many private sector doctors in India miss the signs of tuberculosis and therefore provide patients inadequate treatment, according to a new study published Tuesday involving people hired to act out the symptoms. Tuberculosis or TB, an airborne infection, remains a major public health issue in India, China and Indonesia, among other countries. It killed 1.7 million people in 2017, according to the World Health […]
Mahigit 5,000 preso sa Manila City Jail, isasailalim sa tuberculosis mass screening
MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News) — Magsasagawa ng mass screening ngayong araw, Marso 12, para sa mga preso sa Manila City Jail, ang Department of Health (DOH) at Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP). Ito ay upang matukoy kung ilan sa 5,000 preso ang apektado ng sakit na tuberculosis. Matatandaang napaulat na mahigit sa 40 katao ang nagpositibo sa sakit na tuberculosis dahil sa mainit na panahon at pagsisiksikan sa bilangguan.
Kaso ng tuberculosis sa Palawan, tumataas
PUERTO PRINCESA, Palawan (Eagle News) – Tuloy-tuloy ang programa ng Detect TB sa paghahanap ng mga bagong kaso na may kaugnayan sa tuberculosis sa Palawan. Ayon kay Doctor Janet Reston, Detect TB Project Coordinator, mula sa World Health Organization, tumaataas ang bilang ng mga nadidiskubre na may sakit na tuberculosis sa buong Palawan. Ito ay magandang sensyales na nagiging matagumpay ang pagsisikap ng naturang programa upang makahanap at magamot ang mga taong may sakit ng TB. Ang […]
Hepatitis outstrips AIDS, TB as killer: report
PARIS, France (AFP) — Virus-caused hepatitis has become a leading cause of death and disability in the world, killing more people in a year than AIDS, tuberculosis or malaria, a report said Thursday. Deaths from infection, liver disease and cancer caused by viral hepatitis increased by 63 percent from 890,000 in 1990 to 1.45 million in 2013, according to a review of data collected in 183 countries. By comparison, in 2013 there were 1.3 million […]





