Drug-resistant TB

Some strains of tuberculosis (TB) are resistant to several different drugs. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) can usually be treated successfully after identifying which drugs the bacteria are still susceptible to. A strain of TB that is resistant to a larger number of drugs is known as extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB).

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Drug-resistant TB: latest news

Drug-resistant TB features

Drug-resistant TB news from aidsmap

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Drug-resistant TB news selected from other sources

  • Will a new TB treatment be available soon?

    Experts advising the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on marketed and investigational drugs for infectious diseases and disorders were divided on whether the regulatory agency should approve a new drug as part of a proposed combination therapy for highly resistant tuberculosis. The majority of the independent experts — 14 out of 18 — advising the regulatory agency voted favorably last month. But the remaining four found insufficient evidence on efficacy and safety of the TB Alliance’s oral anti-TB drug pretomanid when used in combination with bedaquiline and linezolid, or BPaL.

    08 July 2019 | Devex

  • FDA Advisory Committee Votes Favorably on the Question of the Effectiveness and Safety of Pretomanid in Combination with Bedaquiline and Linezolid for Treatment of Highly Drug-Resistant Forms of Tuberculosis

    Investigational drug pretomanid, developed by non-profit TB Alliance, is under regulatory review for treatment of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis and treatment-intolerant or non-responsive multidrug-resistant tuberculosis as part of a new investigational regimen that includes bedaquiline and linezolid.

    07 June 2019 | TB Alliance

  • Drug resistant strains could become the dominant form of TB in Europe: it’s time to end TB

    If the current situation continues, the majority of tuberculosis (TB) patients in the next generation could be suffering from drug resistant forms of the disease. The latest WHO/European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) report, “Tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring in Europe 2019 (2017 data)”, shows that the European Region is struggling to make sufficient progress to finally end TB. Challenges in timely detection, which result in ongoing transmission, and inadequate treatment are driving resistance. Despite an overall decline in cases, TB remains a major public health issue that is causing patients suffering and perpetuating poverty.

    25 March 2019 | World Health Organization Europe

  • 'Short' drug-resistant TB regimen could cut treatment time by more than half

    A new drug cocktail reduces the length of treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis from nearly two years to nine to 11 months with a similar effectiveness, according to a large clinical trial whose results were published in a US journal Wednesday.

    14 March 2019 | FRANCE 24

  • TB CAB statement on safety of using bedaquiline and delamanid together

    he Global TB Community Advisory Board (TB CAB) welcomes the important finding from the AIDS Clinical Trials Group Deliberate Trial that newer drugs bedaquiline and delamanid are safe to use together. These findings should erase any remaining reluctance to use these two important drugs together, as the benefits of these safer drugs outweigh the risks--especially for patients with drug-resistant TB who have few other treatment options.

    14 March 2019 | TB Online

  • Deadly drug-resistant TB a ‘blinking red’ global threat

    “We should all be more worried about multidrug-resistant TB than we are. It gets nothing like the level of attention it should do,” Peter Sands, Global Fund’s head, told AFP during a visit to New Delhi.

    07 February 2019 | South China Morning Post

  • Vitamin D helps treat lethal drug-resistant TB

    Vitamin D has been found to speed up the clearance of tuberculosis (TB) bacteria from the lungs of people with multi-drug resistant TB, according to a study of 1,850 patients receiving antibiotic treatment, led by Queen Mary University of London.

    07 February 2019 | Eurekalert Inf Dis

  • Despite side-effects, docs promote old TB treatment

    At a recent international TB conference, some doctors suggested countries with weak health systems should not be allowed to use new TB drugs, although the old ones are ineffectual and cause deafness. Thankfully, South Africa is leading the world in treating drug-resistant TB.

    26 November 2018 | Health-e

  • 49th Union World Conference on Lung Health: 90 percent of participants in short-course XDR-TB regimen cured after six months

    New results from the ongoing Nix-TB trial continue to confirm a short-course treatment regimen of bedaquiline – one of the two newest drugs to treat TB in half a century – linezolid and pretomanid offers a significantly improved treatment option for people infected with drug resistant forms of tuberculosis, researchers said here.

    05 November 2018 | Science Speaks

  • Bedaquiline price protests hit World Lung Conference launch

    As the opening ceremony of the 49th Union World Conference on Lung Health kicked off in the Netherlands last night, protesting activists demanded Johnson & Johnson (J&J) slash its price for the blockbuster tuberculosis (TB) drug, bedaquiline.

    26 October 2018 | Health-e
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Community Consensus Statement on Access to HIV Treatment and its Use for Prevention

Together, we can make it happen

We can end HIV soon if people have equal access to HIV drugs as treatment and as PrEP, and have free choice over whether to take them.

Launched today, the Community Consensus Statement is a basic set of principles aimed at making sure that happens.

The Community Consensus Statement is a joint initiative of AVAC, EATG, MSMGF, GNP+, HIV i-Base, the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, ITPC and NAM/aidsmap
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