TB Clip 2023년 3월호 본문 이미지

편집자 한마디!

국내외 결핵(TB)뉴스

학술연구자료

STOP-TB한국사무국 소식

Preparations for the UN High Level Meeting on Tuberculosis have intensified, following the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the resolution “Scope, modalities, format and organization of the high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis” last week. Member States in the resolution, decided that the one-day high-level meeting on the fight against TB would be convened by the President of the General Assembly in New York on 22 September 2023. The theme of the meeting is: “Advancing science, finance and innovation, and their benefits, to urgently end the global tuberculosis epidemic, in particular, by ensuring equitable access to prevention, testing, treatment and care.” For more information please access the resolution here.

On 22 March 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) will organize a special virtual Talk Show to commemorate World TB Day, observed every year on 24 March. This year’s World TB Day theme 'Yes! We can end TB.' aims to inspire hope and encourage high-level leadership, urging countries to ramp up progress in the lead-up to the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB. The speakers will be connected in person and by video on WHO’s interactive web-platform - End TB Forum . Register for the event here.

The World Health Organization (WHO) launched a call for applications to expand its global pool of consultants providing technical assistance to National TB Programs throughout the strategic planning process. Successful candidates will be invited to attend a five-day workshop (5-9 June 2023) in Europe for training on TB surveillance and programmatic activities related to Epidemiological Reviews and Program Reviews. The deadline to apply is 22 March 2023. Full details about the call are available here.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released an advocacy and communications package to support awareness building and drive action across all levels, in the lead up to and on World TB Day, observed every year on 24 March. The theme of World TB Day 2023 'Yes! We can end TB.' aims to inspire hope and encourage high-level leadership, increased investments, faster uptake of new WHO recommendations, adoption of innovations, accelerated action, and multisectoral collaboration to combat the TB epidemic. This year is critical, with opportunities to raise visibility and political commitment at the 2023 UN High-Level Meeting on TB (HLM on TB) in September. The spotlight of World TB Day will be on urging countries to ramp up progress in the lead-up to the 2023 HLM on TB.

The World Health Organization (WHO) invites all stakeholders to comment by 9 March 2023 on the latest drafts of the target regimen profiles for TB treatment and the target product profiles for tests for TB treatment monitoring and optimization, by means of online feedback forms. Full details about the invitation are available here.

The World Health Organization (WHO) released a compilation of best practices that includes case studies on adaptation and implementation of WHO’s Multisectoral Accountability Framework to end TB (MAF-TB) to support effective collaboration and accountability of governments and stakeholders at the global, regional and country levels to propel progress towards ending the TB epidemic.

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) released its first quarterly training and education newsletter for 2023, sharing the latest news and updates from The Union courses. The newsletter can be accessed here.

While tuberculosis (TB) usually affects the lungs, it can attack any part of the body, including the bones. When TB occurs outside the lungs, it is called extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Bone tuberculosis, or osteoarticular tuberculosis, is a type of extrapulmonary TB. Most often, bone TB affects the spine, but it can also spread to other bones and joints. This article discusses bone tuberculosis, its symptoms, causes, how it's diagnosed, and treatment options.

A team of international scientists led by Professor Dr. Kayvan Bozorgmehr from Bielefeld has investigated whether a single screening after arrival is sufficient or whether there should be follow-up screenings and how these should be designed. The study was published in the medical journal PlosMedicine.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Stop TB Partnership announced a new collaboration with Molbio Diagnostics that significantly reduces the price of the Truenat® MTB and MTB Plus tests, including a supply of MTB-RIF Dx tests for subsequent testing for rifampicin resistance, and ensures timely service and maintenance of diagnostic instruments. This collaboration will expand equitable access to quality rapid testing to underserved populations across all countries supported by the Global Fund, USAID and the Stop TB Partnership.

Spotlight reflected on the results from two TB trials - SimpliciTB and TRUNCATE-TB, reported at CROI 2023, featuring TAG TB Co-Director Lindsay McKenna elaborating on what comes next as an alternative to the six-month drug-susceptible standard of TB care.

Myanmar is the only country in the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Region to achieve the 2020 deadline for the Sustainable Development Goals target of 20% reduction of TB incidence from the 2015 baseline. Collaboration of the public and private sectors has played an important role in the efforts to control TB. An increase in government spending on TB, newer diagnostic tools, use of mobile clinics, and making treatment affordable are some of the key elements of Myanmar’s approach to combat TB.

On 28 February 2023, a coalition of civil society activists, public health leaders, and researchers acting in solidarity with communities affected by TB sent an open letter to Cepheid sharing information about the 1/4/6x24 Campaign and requesting Cepheid’s urgent contribution to the Campaign through actions necessary to improve equitable access to GeneXpert TB diagnostics. "Improving rates of rapid molecular testing and diagnosis of TB and drug-resistant TB is critically needed so that all people with TB can access the shortest-available regimens for TB prevention and treatment by the end of 2024. In the context of a rapidly evolving TB diagnostics landscape with increasing competition, we request that Cepheid play a leadership role among diagnostics companies by supporting the 1/4/6x24 Campaign…"

Calibr and the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute announced a strategic licensing agreement to advance development of a novel investigational compound for TB treatment, CLB073. CLB073 holds the potential to complement and potentiate the current TB standard of care, with the intent of improving efficacy and shortening the duration of treatment time. Source: PRNewswire

Roche announced the expansion of its collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to strengthen laboratory capabilities in countries greatly affected by the HIV and TB epidemics. Through the implementation of a public-private partnership, named “Lab Networks for Health,” Roche and the CDC will seek to improve HIV and TB prevention, detection and treatment outcomes in select countries of Africa, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Western Hemisphere (e.g., Latin America, Central America and Caribbean regions).

A clinical trial testing a freeze-dried, temperature-stable experimental TB vaccine in healthy adults found that it was safe and stimulated both antibodies and responses from the cellular arm of the immune system. A non-temperature stable form of the candidate previously had been tested in several clinical trials. However, this was the first clinical trial of any subunit TB vaccine candidate in a temperature-stable (thermostable) form. Results are published in Nature Communications.

There is an unmet need for a point-of-care, nonsputum-based TB test. Researchers have discovered new technology that will quickly and easily detect active Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection antibodies.

A new, low-cost, scalable package for diagnosing TB onsite in resource-poor community settings is feasible and effective, according to a new trial. Portable, battery-operated, molecular diagnostic tool, Xpert, was able to detect almost all likely infectious cases of the disease in a community trial of almost 600 participants in South Africa. Published in Nature Medicine, the findings may signal an important step towards the implementation of active case finding for the disease, helping move diagnostics out of healthcare facilities and into the community.

Treatment Action Group (TAG) released an overview of TB research data reported at CROI 2023. Highlights include the much-anticipated results of the SimpliciTB trial; additional analyses of the two-month TB treatment regimen studied in the TRUNCATE-TB trial; and the first clinical trial data on sutezolid since 2012. A summary of major findings and TAG’s analysis are available here.

An 8-week TB treatment strategy for drug-sensitive TB, for where additional therapy is reserved only for persistent disease or at relapse, led to less overall treatment and similar clinical outcomes compared with the standard 6-month approach, an open-label randomized study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at CROI 2023 showed.

Results of TB Alliance’s SimpliciTB trial were presented at CROI 2023. SimpliciTB was conducted to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of a novel and potentially shorter drug regimen (BPaMZ) for patients with drug-sensitive (4 months) and drug-resistant TB (6 months). The BPaMZ regimen is comprised of bedaquiline, pretomanid, moxifloxacin and pyrazinamide. Source: TB Alliance

Adding the oxazolidinone antibiotic sutezolid to a three-drug combination (bedaquiline, delamanid, and moxifloxacin) appeared to be safe and effective for people with multidrug-resistant TB, according to a dose-finding phase II study. Source: MedPage Today

A set of 10 signaling proteins found in the microbe that causes TB, play a far larger role in regulating the bacterium’s growth, development and behavior than previously thought, according to recent research published in Nature Microbiology.

People have inhabited the Andes mountains of South America for more than 9,000 years, adapting to the scarce oxygen available at high altitudes, along with cold temperatures and intense ultraviolet radiation. A new genomic study suggests that Indigenous populations in present-day Ecuador also adapted to the tuberculosis bacterium, thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.

Dose escalation, guided by therapeutic drug monitoring, is an effective method to achieve target levels of rifampicin in those critically ill with TB, according to study findings published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.

A new state-of-the-art method that measures the amounts of drugs and lipids in individual cells could help health professionals target more effective treatments for diseases such as TB.

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease released the March 2023 issue of the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD). It includes TB-related research publications.