VOL.49   /  2024.05.24

The Stop TB Partnership, Country-Level Platform Partnerships – Stories from the field of April 2024

Stop TB’s Brenda Waning, Chief of the Global Drug Facility has been named to the TIME100 Health list of the 100 most influential people in global health. The list recognizes the impact, innovation, and achievement of the world’s most influential people in global health

Launched! Key Asks from TB community fir the UN High Level Meeting on AMR

Stop TB Partnership to carry TB innovation to new heights on MT.Everest while attempting a Guinness World Record

Treatment Action Group (TAG) released the new 2024 update of An Activist’s Guide to Rifapentine TB Preventive Treatment: 3HP and 1HP. The guide lays out what TB community advocates need to know about rifapentine-based TB preventive treatment (TPT).

Community Connect, an open-access space, is a valuable addition and important highlight of The Union World Conference of Lung Health 2024. Full details about the Community Connect and the session submission process are available here.

BioVersys AG announced the expansion of its strategic collaboration with GSK plc to accelerate the clinical development of alpibectir (BVL-GSK098) for the treatment of TB. Alpibectir, a small molecule acting through a novel mode of action, is currently being evaluated in combination with ethionamide in a Phase 2a proof-of-concept study in pulmonary TB patients in South Africa. Access the full press release here.

Currently, the only available vaccine for TB prevention is Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), which is given to babies soon after birth in some countries. Towards the end of March 2024, the first doses of potentially the first new TB vaccine in a century were administered at a clinical trial site in Johannesburg, South Africa. Watch a short video here.

Safeguarding children against TB takes center stage with introduction of child-friendly formulation of rifapentine for short-course TB preventive treatment. 'We call on our governments to move quickly to procure this life-saving product without delay.' The full statement with all accompanying materials can be accessed here.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) announced the costs of its landmark TB PRACTECAL clinical trial — approximately $36 million — marking the first time the detailed costs of an individual clinical trial have ever been shared publicly. MSF developed ‘Transparency CORE’, a clinical trial cost reporting toolkit, and urges all public and non-profit actors to publish their clinical trial costs and support the development of international policy to mandate standardised cost reporting.

Johnson & Johnson receives positive CHMP opinion recommending full approval for SIRTURO® for treatment of multidrug-resistant TB

Only about 12-16% of children and young adolescents with multidrug-resistant TB or rifampicin-resistant TB were diagnosed and treated in 2022. Diagnosing them is hard, and the treatment course is lengthy and side-effect-prone. Source: Devex

A study, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, provided clarity on who should receive TB preventive treatment (TPT). Exposed individuals with confirmed TB infection — i.e. a positive skin or blood test — should receive priority TPT in settings with a low prevalence of the disease, regardless of their age. However, in high-burden settings, all exposed individuals should be considered for TPT, even without a confirmed infection.

According to a study, published in Nature Microbiology, how an individual’s immune system responds to the bacteria that causes TB — and therefore whether they develop the disease — may differ across age and sex. “Our study is the first to examine whether we should be looking for different diagnostic markers in different groups of people — men versus women and kids versus adults, for example.”

A meta-analysis of 17 studies, published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, revealed that TB and COVID-19 co-infection is becoming increasingly prevalent around the world, with death rates gradually declining but remaining higher than COVID-19 infection alone.

According to study, published in Rheumatology, the risk for systemic vasculitides (SV) is increased among patients with TB, especially among those with extrapulmonary disease. Investigators explored the association between TB and the incidence of SV: a group of rare autoimmune disorders characterized by inflammation of the blood vessel walls.

Experts are working on novel immune-enhancing therapies called host-directed therapies to use the body's own immune system to target TB, with hopes that they could tackle even the drug-resistant forms of the disease. Researchers presented their work at this year's ESCMID Global Congress in Barcelona, Spain (27–30 April).

A study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, highlighted the substantial impact of infectious diseases on global health. The analysis of data from 204 countries estimated that 85 pathogens accounted for 704 million disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) globally in 2019. The three pathogens with the largest observed impact were those causing TB (TB, 65.1 million DALYs), malaria (53.6 million), and HIV or AIDS (52.1 million).

A whole genome sequencing (WGS) study, in Mumbai, India of 600 TB patients, who did not respond to initial treatment, revealed that 51% had pre-extensively drug-resistant TB (pre-XDR-TB) followed by multidrug-resistant TB (15.5%). The absence of full drug-susceptibility data can result in amplifying resistance and may compromise treatment outcomes, making WGS crucial for accurate TB treatment decisions.

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease released the May 2024 issue of the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD). The RESIST-TB May 2024 newsletter with the latest updates and research publications on drug-resistant TB can be accessed here.

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease released the April 2024 issue of the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD). It contains TB-related research publications. IJTLD OPEN April 2024 issue can be accessed here.