The live webcast on the U.S. government’s strategy for combating the global TB epidemic will start in approximately 30 minutes. You can watch and participate here.

Here’s a note from the Kaiser Family Foundation, who’s hosting the broadcast:

TB is preventable and curable, but today remains one of the world’s major causes of illness and death. Most of those affected are in developing countries, particularly those in Asia and Africa. The U.S. stepped up its efforts to address TB in the late 1990s, and funding has increased – rising from $87 million in fiscal year 2004 to $175 million in 2009. Now is a particularly important time to look at the U.S. role in combating TB moving forward. The Administration is currently planning a broad, new Global Health Initiative, which will focus on integration and coordination of the U.S. global health portfolio and Congress, through PEPFAR Reauthorization, has mandated the development of 5-year TB strategy. Both these processes are underway.

Today at 1 p.m. ET, the Kaiser Family Foundation, as part of its In Focus series, will hold a live, interactive webcast with experts to discuss the status of the TB strategy, how it fits into the overall global health initiative, and key challenges on the horizon. In addition to featuring Cheri Vincent from USAID and Dr. Christine Sizemore from NIH, we’ll hear from Christine Lubinski of the Center for Global Health Policy and Dr. Robin Wood from the University of Cape Town about his experience on the ground in South Africa. Full details about the event are here: .

Email questions to us now or during the live webcast at infocus@kff.org.

-Jen Kates, The Kaiser Family Foundation

We wanted to be sure to let you know about a live, interactive webcast hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation tomorrow at 1 pm EST. The webcast will feature a panel of experts discussing U.S. strategy to combat the global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic.

According to Kaiser,

TB, a preventable and curable disease, remains one of the world’s major causes of illness and death, resulting in close to 2 million deaths in 2007. The majority of TB cases and deaths are concentrated in developing countries, particularly those in Asia and Africa. During this live webcast, the panel will discuss the U.S. government’s global response to TB, including the status of a Congressionally-mandated five-year global TB strategy, how such a strategy will be integrated into the administration’s new, broader, Global Health Initiative, and key challenges that remain – such as the link between HIV and TB – in combating the disease around the world.

We’ll post the link to the webcast when it becomes available approximately 30 minutes before it begins.

Just when you thought “Ratatouille” would be the highlight for these long-tailed rodents, the organization APOPO has trained African rats to diagnose pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). Using scent detection, these HeroRAT’s can reliably (50 percent higher reliability than traditional microscopy) process 40 sputum samples in seven minutes, a task that takes trained lab technicians an entire day.

This innovative means of ‘ratting out’ pulmonary tuberculosis presents a unique way to enhance TB case detection in resource limited settings.

To learn more, read the original article here, and check out ONE’s tuberculosis brief here.

-Rena Pacheco-Theard

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria announced today that it has helped put 2.3 million people on life-saving treatment for HIV/AIDS (a 31 percent increase over results reported last year), treated 5.4 million people for tuberculosis (a 38 percent increase over last year), and distributed 88 million insecticide-treated bed nets (a 49 percent increase from this time last year) to protect against malaria since it was created eight years ago.

These inspiring results constitute 30-50 percent increases in treatment and prevention measures in just one year. As Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, commented, “In less than eight years, the Global Fund has gone from a concept to a driver of change.”

The Global Fund’s latest results attest to its effectiveness in the prevention and treatment of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. It is imperative that the $3 billion funding shortfall currently facing the partnership is filled by donors.

To learn more about the Global Fund’s impact, read their press release here.

-Rena Pacheco-Theard

At a congressional briefing last Thursday, leading global health experts pushed for stronger U.S. leadership and more aggressive global policies to combat HIV/TB co-infection worldwide. The hearing coincided with the Center for Global Health Policy’s release of “Deadly Duo: The Synergy Between HIV/AIDS & Tuberculosis”, which echoed many of the main points of the briefing. The discussion, moderated by Christine Lubinski, director of the Center for Global Health Policy, included Dr. Diane Havlir, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, Dr. Carol Hamilton, co-chair of the Center’s Scientific Advisory Committee, and Rosemary Mburu, advocacy and policy coordinator for Kenya’s AIDS NGO Consortium (KANCO).

Both the hearing and the report warned that the recent success of HIV treatment is at risk due to the spread of tuberculosis. In the past two decades, the number of new cases of TB in HIV-prevalent countries has tripled – TB is now the number one killer of those infected with HIV in the developing world. Within two weeks of contracting HIV, Dr. Havlir explained, the risk of also contracting TB doubles. These catastrophic consequences of co-infection require immediate action.

The panelists emphasized the need to improve and ramp-up antiretroviral treatment, diagnostic tests, and research and development. Dr. Havlir also urged an earlier start for treatment. This early start, Havlir explained, would have dual benefits – it would improve survival rates of HIV-positive patients as well as lower the risk of contracting TB. Dr. Hamilton explained that outdated drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines are becoming less and less effective at combating the spread of TB. Even more dangerous, TB strains are developing faster than the drugs to combat them, resulting in drug-resistant strands of TB.

Mburu provided a face to the disease, recounting personal stories from the ground. A lack of labs to diagnose drug-resistant TB, compounded by a lack of accessibility to treatment and a lengthy delay in test results is causing an increase in TB deaths. “People are living with HIV, but it is TB that is killing them,” Mburu explained.

Lubinski ended the briefing with an aggressive call to action. She urged attendees to, “re-invigorate the energy [and] the passion” from HIV/AIDS research and development to fight against the increasingly disastrous consequences of TB.

Check out a webcast of the briefing here.

-Pooja Gupta

Here’s a little good news for your Friday: two FDA-approved drugs were found to block the growth of certain strains of extremely drug resistant Tuberculosis (XDR TB). While this chance discovery occurred in the lab, clinical trials on humans are now being planned in South Korea and South Africa.

Excerpts below, full article here

Scientists have reported their breakthrough in the latest issue of the ‘Science’ journal. Speaking to TOI, Dr John Blanchard, professor of biochemistry at Einstein and senior author of the paper, said that in the lab, scientists successfully killed all XDR TB bacteria in less than two weeks time.

Dr Blanchard said, “The entire discovery happened by chance. We didn’t set out to see whether these two drugs, alone or in combination, fought TB. Now, after three years of lab research, Clavulanate was found to be highly effective in inhibiting the crucial enzyme that shields TB bacteria while Meropenem was highly effective in killing the TB organism completely.”

He added, “Normally, it takes two years of continuous therapy to treat drug resistant TB strains. If this combination works in humans, we will be able to completely eliminate the organism within two weeks time.”

-Rena Pacheco-Theard

We noted last week that donors met in Spain from March 31 to April 1 to review the progress and funding needs of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Here are some highlights from the communiqué.

Results show the Global Fund is having a significant impact: Michel Kazatchkine, the Global Fund’s Executive Director said that the Global Fund “is affecting the course of these three epidemics.” With commitments reaching $15 billion since inception in 2002, the Global Fund has provided support for more than 600 programs in 140 countries. The Minister of Health from Nigeria, the Honorable Babatunde Osotimehin, presented findings on Nigeria’s malaria prevention and control efforts, including contributions from the Global Fund of 4 million long-lasting insecticide treated nets and 18 million doses of ACTs. Burkina Faso’s Minister of Health, the Honorable Seydou Bouda, described many gains in malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS supported by the Global Fund, including 1.2 million children under five receiving ACTs, among others. (Stay tuned for more on Global Fund results coming later this week!)

Donors agreed that with the growth of Global Fund programs, long-term sustainability becomes even more important. Increased domestic financing for health from Global Fund recipients was one area emphasized as a way to improve sustainability. Nigeria and Burkina Faso both pledged full commitment to this. On the Global Fund side, participants asked that cost effectiveness and efficiency opportunities be pursued so that results can be maximized with available funding.

Demand for funding has increased so much that the Global Fund now estimates there is a $4 billion gap between resources currently available and those needed to meet the $13.5 billion demand from countries for 2008-2010. With what is currently available, Round 8 could be fully funded, but there is only $0.9 billion for Round 9 and subsequent rounds. The Global Fund Board will begin approving new grants in November of this year, so there is an urgent need for donors to address the funding gap. Spain has already shown its commitment, and was congratulated for increasing its contribution to $213 million. Other donors confirmed that that they expect to meet the commitments made in Berlin 2007. ONE is hoping they will in fact follow through on their commitments so the Global Fund can continue to support countries in their efforts to fight AIDS, TB, and malaria.

-Lisa Fleisher

In conjunction with World TB Day, the Kaiser Family Foundation today released new tuberculosis data as depicted on an interactive map. Through GlobalHealthFacts.org you can create your own custom data sheet. You can check out this great resource here.

-Chris Scott

Every year on March 24th, the world commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB). World TB Day provides an opportunity to look at the progress being made in the control and treatment of tuberculosis, as well as reflect on the challenges that lie ahead.

The U.S. theme for World TB Day 2009 is “Partnerships for TB Elimination,” which emphasizes that a variety of efforts are needed to address TB. The global theme, as described by the Stop TB Partnership, is “I am stopping TB.” This means that individuals (as patients), as well as health workers, educators, scientists and communities can all do their part to Stop TB. Collaboration among all of these partners is much needed: globally, 9.2 million new cases and 1.7 million TB deaths occurred in 2006. The incidence of TB cases has increased between two- and six-fold since 1990, and Africa accounts for 85% of the world’s total number of people living with HIV and TB (those with weakened immune systems, such as HIV-positive patients, are more susceptible to the disease).

However, there is progress being made. Globally, the rate of case detection (a necessary first step to ensure proper treatment) reached 61% in 2006 and the treatment success rate improved to 84.7% in 2005. With support from donors like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, the Philippines, one of 22 countries with the highest burden of TB, saw a 44% reduction in tuberculosis deaths. In Africa, TB detection rates increased from 23% to 46% between 1995 and 2006. Also, more people are receiving Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) – where patients are supervised while medication is administered. DOTS coverage in high-burden countries in Africa has increased from 43% in 1995 to 91% in 2006.

To effectively reverse the spread of tuberculosis, detection and treatment services must be made available to everyone in need, especially those who are most vulnerable. New and better tools are also needed: just next month a new tuberculosis vaccine will begin testing in South Africa. More financial resources are needed to back these efforts: the Global Plan to Stop TB estimates that an additional $1 billion is needed to effectively control TB across the globe.

-Rena Pacheco-Theard

Last night PBS’ “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” began airing their new Global Health Unit, a three-part series funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The series “examines efforts to address HIV/AIDS, the increase of HIV/tuberculosis coinfections and the impact of HIV/AIDS on children.”

In conjunction with the Global Health Unit, PBS has also launched a fantastic new website with excellent resources, streaming video, photo galleries, and slide shows. Definitely worth checking out when you have a chance.

-Chris Scott