TB // Current

Earliest confirmed TB case found

The 9,000-year-old remains of a mother and her baby discovered off the coast of Israel provide the earliest concrete evidence of... more

bedeboop
added this

9,000-year-old remains of a woman shows earliest signs of TB

The remains of a 9,000 year old mother and child, dug up in Israel, are believed to be the earliest human evidence that TB... more

sarahlou79
added this

25 Test Positive For TB At Gwinnett County School

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. -- The results are in from skin tests administered at a Gwinnett County school after an 11th-grade student... more

GETTINGOUTOURDREAMS
added this

We are the treatment

XDRTB.org is an extraordinary effort to tell the story of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) and TB through powerful... more

imagism31
added this

Moroccan officials close shisha cafes

Authorities in Casablanca have shut down shisha cafes throughout the city after receiving several complaints during the holy month... more

TravG73
added this

New HIV policies to focus on drug users

Health and criminal justice authorities need to provide targeted services to drug users, especially those who inject drugs, to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. TB is a major cause of death for people living with HIV, but drug users who are HIV-positive face stigma, discrimination and barriers to accessing life-saving treatments.

New guidelines issued today aim to reduce these preventable deaths by, for example, improving access to antiretroviral drugs and to isoniazid for drug users living with HIV. Isoniazid preventive therapy (IPT) significantly reduces the risk of TB disease in people living with HIV, but is not widely used.

These are the first recommendations to actively include TB and HIV care within the context of support to drug users. They form part of the Evidence for Action series and build on policy guidance on both TB/HIV and injecting drug use.

Even where IPT is available, health care and outreach workers face major challenges in delivering full care to drug users who are often marginalized by homelessness, poverty, imprisonment, and by public and political hostility. These factors contribute to the transmission of both HIV and TB, and at the same time are barriers to TB, HIV and drug dependence treatment.

To ensure all drug users, including those in prison, can benefit from TB and HIV prevention, treatment support and care, WHO, UNAIDS and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime have developed Policy Guidelines for Collaborative TB and HIV services for Injecting and Other Drug Users - An Integrated Approach. The measures1 aim to break down the barriers that stand in the way of better health, outline key interventions, and promote ways to improve coordination and planning across all those who interact with injecting and other drug users.

HIV weakens a person's immune system. Because of this, people living with HIV are up to 50 times more likely to develop TB in their lifetimes than people who are HIV-negative. Without proper treatment, the majority of people living with HIV die within two to three months of becoming sick with TB. In 2006, 231 000 people died with HIV and TB. Many of these deaths were preventable.

Unsafe injecting drug use is now a major route of transmission for HIV. Excluding Africa, nearly one in three of all new HIV infections are attributable to unsafe injecting drug use. In areas of eastern Europe and central Asia, that figure rises to two out three new infections. In some areas of eastern Europe a significant association between HIV and multidrug-resistant TB has been observed by researchers.

Addressing TB/HIV is a key theme of the 2008 International AIDS Society conference and comes two months after world leaders issued a call to drastically cut the number of TB/HIV deaths by 2015 at the landmark Global Leaders' Forum on the co-epidemic, held at the UN headquarters in New York.Health and criminal justice authorities need to provide targeted services to drug users, especially those who inject drugs, to... more

goldenways
added this

3 responses

3 months ago

TB hampers HIV treatment - study

Patients being treated for tuberculosis (TB) may not get the full benefits from HIV therapy, researchers say.

Nevirapine - a cheap antiretroviral drug used to treat HIV in developing countries - did not work as well in patients also on TB treatment. But another more expensive drug - efavirenz - did not seem to be affected by the TB treatment, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported. Around 40% of HIV patients in the South African study were also treated for TB. In poorer countries, antiretroviral therapy is often initiated in TB clinics, because TB is an infection common in HIV patients. Nevirapine is a common choice because of its cost and can be used in women of child-bearing age.

There is concern that giving HIV drugs alongside a TB treatment known as rifampicin may cause toxic effects or reduce the effectiveness of the drugs. Researchers looked at almost 4,000 patients who started antiretroviral therapy between 2001 and 2006. The researchers found that patients with tuberculosis who were also treated with nevirapine were about twice as likely to have a high viral load - that is high levels of HIV in their system - as those without tuberculosis. And patients being treated with nevirapine with TB therapy were more than twice as likely to develop speedy virological failure - where the drugs are not working. But there were no differences between patients starting efavirenz with and without tuberculosis treatment. The nevirapine treatment was also effective if it was started first, before the TB treatment.

It is thought the TB drugs speed up the breakdown of nevirapine in the body. Study leader Dr Andrew Boulle of the University of Cape Town said that, given the continued reliance on nevirapine-based regimens in Africa and the importance of TB services in initiating people on HIV therapy, further research was warranted. "One of the most striking aspects of our study was the demonstration that 40% of patients starting antiretroviral therapy in recent years have concurrent tuberculosis, underscoring the public health importance of improving affordable treatment options for patients infected with HIV and tuberculosis."

John Howson, associate director of the International HIV/Aids Alliance, said the study raised an interesting point but it was too soon to make recommendations about treatment. "It shows when you start antiretroviral therapy you may start them on a drug which may compromise their TB therapy, which is important, but this needs more research." He added that nevirapine had revolutionised HIV treatment because it could be given during pregnancy. Patients being treated for tuberculosis (TB) may not get the full benefits from HIV therapy, researchers say. Nevirapine - a... more