Infection Control Today Magazine

Tuberculosis

Scientists Explain Unique Activity of TB Drug Pyrazinamide

Pyrazinamide has been used in combination with other drugs as a first-line treatment for people with tuberculosis (TB) since the 1950s, but exactly how the drug works has not been well understood. Now, researchers have discovered a key reason why the drug effectively ...More
August 11, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Based on Data, WHO Advises Against Use of Blood Antibody Test for Active TB

Commercial blood serum antibody tests—widely used in India and other developing countries to diagnose active tuberculosis—are not accurate or cost-effective, according to an analysis by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of ...More
August 10, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Fast, Inexpensive Urine Test for TB on the Horizon

Scientists are reporting an advance toward a fast, inexpensive urine test to detect and monitor the effectiveness of treatment for tuberculosis (TB), which is on a rampage in the developing world. Their study appears in the American Chemical Society (ACS)'s journal ...More
August 3, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Are Some Individuals Predisposed to Tuberculosis?

Are you genetically predisposed to tuberculosis? Scientists may now be able to answer this question and doctors may be able to adjust their therapeutic approach based on what they learn. That's because new research presented in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that ...More
August 1, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
WHO Warns Against Use of Inaccurate Blood Tests for Active Tuberculosis

The use of currently available commercial blood (serological) tests to diagnose active tuberculosis (TB) often leads to misdiagnosis, mistreatment and potential harm to public health, says the World Health Organization (WHO) in a policy recommendation issued today. WHO is ...More
July 20, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Nurses to Play Central Role in Managing TB Syndemic

Jason E. Farley, PhD, MPH, CRNP, knows the dangers inherent to an increasingly common and hazardous syndemic in South Africa: HIV and drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). More problematic than a co-morbidity, a syndemic refers to two or more co-occurring epidemics that ...More
July 8, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Combination Therapy as Good as Old Regimen to Prevent Full Blown TB in People With and Without HIV

Johns Hopkins and South African scientists have further compelling evidence that new, simpler and shorter treatments with antibiotic drugs could dramatically help prevent tens of millions of people worldwide already infected with the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis, ...More
July 6, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
Professor Taking the Lead in Global Effort Against Drug-Resistant TB, HIV

In the African nation where the first extensively drug-resistant case of tuberculosis (XDR-TB) was found a few years ago, the doors soon will open on a new TB research facility. University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher Adrie Steyn, PhD, is the first scientist ...More
July 1, 2011
Posted in News, Infections & Pathogens
A 2020 Vision of Vaccines for Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS

Collectively, malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS cause more than five million deaths per year – nearly the entire population of the state of Washington – and represent one of the world’s major public health challenges as we move into the second decade of the 21st century. In the May ...More
May 25, 2011
Posted in News
PET Scans Predict Effectiveness of Treatment for Multidrug-Resistant TB in HIV Patients

With the deficiencies in knowledge of tuberculosis—as well as in the practices, programs and strategies used to combat the disease and co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)—the spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis poses a major problem for the ...More
May 24, 2011
Posted in News

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