Background In an era of renewed commitment to accelerate the declines in Tuberculosis (TB) incidence and mortality, there is the need for National Tuberculosis Programmes (NTPs) to monitor trends in key indicators across a geographical location and to provide reliable data for direct measurement of TB incidence and mortality. In this context, we explored the trends [...]
Abstract Metabolism underpins the pathogenic strategy of the causative agent of TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), and therefore metabolic pathways have recently re-emerged as attractive drug targets. A powerful approach to study Mtb metabolism as a whole, rather than just individual enzymatic components, is to use a systems biology framework, such as a Genome-Scale Metabolic Network (GSMN) that [...]
Introduction The World Health Organization’s framework for TB/HIV collaborative activities recommends provider-initiated HIV testing and counselling (PITC) of patients with presumptive TB. In Myanmar, PITC among presumptive TB patients was started at the TB outpatient department (TB OPD) in Mandalay in 2014. In this study, we assessed the uptake of PITC among presumptive TB patients and [...]
NEW YORK/GENEVA – The pharmaceutical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has announced a reduced price of US$1.50 per day for the tuberculosis (TB) drug bedaquiline, which is an important step that should allow more people with drug-resistant forms of TB (DR-TB) to access this lifesaving drug. But the price should come down further and be extended to more countries, says [...]
India, which has a quarter of the global tuberculosis cases, faces the grim prospects of COVID-19 pandemic disrupting its already over-burdened healthcare system struggling with tuberculosis and HIV, and putting a spanner in the country’s efforts to eliminate TB by 2025. Many of India’s 1.3 billion people resides in densely populated, resource-constrained settings, which puts them [...]
Jeanne Norris is a teacher, the wife of a teacher and the mother of an 8-year-old in St. Louis. She’d love to send her son back to school in August. But, she says, “I feel like my government and my fellow citizens have put me in a position where it’s not really in the best [...]
Some scientists are warning there is growing evidence of airborne transmission of coronavirus. But how does it affect the actions we should take to stay safe? What is airborne transmission?According to the World Health Organization, airborne transmission involves tiny virus-containing droplets suspended in the air (aerosols) that linger for some time and are carried over distances [...]
Abstract Aim Many countries have closed schools and kindergartens to minimise COVID‐19, but the role that children play in disease transmission is unclear. Methods A systematic literature review of the MEDLINE and EMBASE databases and medRxiv/bioRxiv preprint servers to 11 May 2020 identified published and unpublished papers on COVID‐19 transmission by children. Image [...]
Abstract Successful host defence against a pathogen can involve resistance or tolerance, with implications for prioritising either antimicrobial or immunomodulatory therapeutic approaches. Hyper-inflammation occurs in Covid-19 and is associated with worse outcomes. The efficacy of dexamethasone in preventing mortality in critical Covid-19 suggests that inflammation has a causal role in death. Whether this deleterious inflammation is [...]
July 8, 2020 — As COVID-19 cases rise rapidly throughout the South, some scientists believe there could be an important, but overlooked factor in the spread of the virus in the region–air conditioning. Just as chilly winter temps create the perfect conditions for passing colds and flu—driving people indoors and into closer proximity for more hours of the [...]
