UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe “said Thursday that global contributions to fighting [HIV/AIDS] are dropping off for the first time in 15 years amid tough economic times,” Agence France-Presse reports. “The world economic recession is pushing countries … to enforce austerity,” Sidibe said during a press conference in Tokyo during which he called upon Japan to maintain its support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. “Governments and donors are second-guessing in terms of their budget and priorities,” he added…

Global Post Examines How Global Fund Impacts HIV Care, Human Rights In El Salvador Global Post examines how the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is impacting HIV/AIDS care and human rights in El Salvador. The article profiles Carla, a Salvadorian transvestite who tested positive for HIV in jail and was able to receive anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment through a program supported by the Global Fund, which the article calls a “revolutionary model.” “To avoid corruption, the aid money is not simply handed over…

An investment of S$3 million is being pumped into tuberculosis (TB) research by A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), bioindustrial group Institut Merieux and its in vitro diagnostics company bioMerieux. The project, which involves setting up a joint laboratory in Biopolis, Singapore aims to investigate and identify novel biomarkers that could allow early identification of individuals at risk of TB disease development and disease reactivation. This could lead to better diagnosis and treatment for the highly contagious disease…

An investment of S$3 million is being pumped into tuberculosis (TB) research by A*STAR’s Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), bioindustrial group Institut Merieux and its in vitro diagnostics company bioMerieux. The project, which involves setting up a joint laboratory in Biopolis, Singapore aims to investigate and identify novel biomarkers that could allow early identification of individuals at risk of TB disease development and disease reactivation. This could lead to better diagnosis and treatment for the highly contagious disease…

A clinical trial in Cambodia has found it possible to prolong the survival of untreated HIV-infected adults with very weak immune systems and newly diagnosed tuberculosis (TB) by starting anti-HIV therapy two weeks after beginning TB treatment, rather than waiting eight weeks, as has been standard…

It’s a story that unfolds every day around the world but is rarely heard. A woman, man or child living with HIV gets exposed to tuberculosis (TB) in a setting where there are no measures to stop the spread of infection. It could be a workplace, a prison, a clinic or even at home. Soon the person is sick - coughing, feverish and weak. This story is being told and retold this week among the 20 000 participants gathered for the 2010 International AIDS Conference. It’s a story that can end well if the person is lucky enough to have access to both antiretroviral and TB treatment…

This week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director, Dr. Tom Frieden, visited the Nigerian National TB and Leprosy Training Center (NTBLTC) to tour a multimillion dollar laboratory complex established by the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) of the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Institute of Human Virology-Nigeria. This U.S.-Nigeria partnership was established in 2004 through funding from the CDC and the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)…

A group of 85 international experts, amongst whom are two scientists from NEIKER-Tecnalia, believe that the illness known as bovine paratuberculosis or Johne’s disease can be eradicated by means of control programmes, new vaccines or the sacrifice of infected animals…

Study In South Africa Examines TB/HIV Coinfection, MDR-TB Researchers found that 50 percent of deceased patients at a hospital in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal were infected with active tuberculosis, and 17 percent of those with active TB had a multi-drug resistant strain, according to a PLoS Medicine study published on Tuesday, Nature News reports (Maxmen, 6/23). Post-mortem examinations of 240 patients, who were between the ages of 20 to 45 and died in either 2008 or 2009, revealed that 94 percent of them were also HIV-positive, according to IRIN…

Today the United States (U.S.) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued new and important guidelines on the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections, the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB)…