TB Clip March 2022 (2) article image

편집자 한마디!

국내외 결핵(TB)뉴스

학술연구자료

STOP - TB 코리아 소식

먼저 우크라이나에 평화가 하루 빨리 찾아오길 기원합니다.
국제 학술지 네이처는 15일(현지 시각) “러시아 침공으로 의료체계가 파괴되고 사람들이 피난길에 오르면서 코로나와 에이즈, 결핵 같은 감염병이 퍼질 가능성이 커지고 있다”고 전했습니다. 매년 결핵 환자도 3만2000명씩 발생하고, 그중 3분의 1이 기존 약이 듣지 않는 내성 환자인데다, 22%는 에이즈까지 걸린 상태라고 합니다. 우크라이나는 물론 난민들과 함께 전 유럽으로 감염병 특히 내성 결핵이 퍼져 감으로서 공중위생에 큰 위협이 아닐 수 없습니다. 과연 이 위협이 북한이라는 이웃을 두고 있는 우리에게 남의 일이 아니라는 생각은 지나친 노파심일까요?

The WHO marks World TB Day with a ‘Scientific Symposium’; in which updates of WHO guidelines on the management of TB in children and adolescents will be discussed. Register here.
When: 24 March;
Time: 5pm-7pm Munich time

The WHO, UNICEF and UNFPA issue a joint statement calling for an end to attacks on health facilities in Ukraine.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria approves US$30 million to top up its emergency fund ,including US$15 million to support the continuity of HIV and TB services in Ukraine.

The Stop TB Partnership social media campaign toolkit for World TB Day on 24 March, 2022.

The WHO’s global TB programme seeks qualified individuals to serve on its Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on TB (STAG-TB). The deadline is 25 March. More details here .

Here is an overview of the ongoing Medecins Sans Frontieres response to the war in Ukraine. (This information is, of course, constantly changing.)

The Russian invasion of Ukraine could be ‘devastating’ for TB control in eastern Europe , and will cause a ‘terrible public health tragedy’, said the Chief Medical Officer of the US, Dr Anthony Fauci. And another opinion piece , this was published in the UK, on the same public health fears following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The WHO’s global guidelines for managing TB in children are to change. The treatment duration can be shortened from six to four months.

A multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial was launched to investigate a new treatment with Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine for pediatric type 1 diabetes, even in subjects with established disease.

TB lesions in the lungs have high levels of proteins that suppress the immune system. A study, published in Nature Immunology, found that cancer drugs targeting these proteins could be used to fight the bacterial infection. Source: Stanford Medicine

The new WHO guidelines are expected soon and follow research led by University College, London, and pubished in the New England Journal of Medicine (account required).

Blocking a key molecule when administering the only approved vaccine for TB improves long-term protection against the devastating disease in mice, researchers from Texas Biomedical Research Institute report ( article is behind paywall ).

A leading medical expert in South Africa argues that the lack of new TB vaccine candidates in recent years is concerning – especially if those undergoing current clinical trials do not prove efficacious.

The reporting of TB cases in Pune (population more than seven million), in India, decreased by almost a third in 2020, when compared with the previous year. This drop in cases is attributed to the pressures on health services created by the pandemic.

An international trial exploring the effectiveness of TB treatment in children has led to a change in the World Health Organization’s global guidelines for managing the disease. The research, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that the treatment duration for the majority of children with drug-sensitive TB can be shortened from six to four months, thereby reducing the burden on families and healthcare systems around the world.

According to findings, published in Chest, in high-income countries like Canada, patients with subclinical pulmonary TB are a heterogeneous group, accounting for one-fifth of all pulmonary TB culture-positive cases.

A systematic analysis, published in The Lancet Microbe, presented the first catalogue, endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), of molecular targets for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex drug susceptibility testing, intended to provide a global standard for resistance interpretation. The existence of this catalogue is expected to encourage the implementation of molecular diagnostics by national TB programs.

Predicting cure among XDR-TB patients by using sputum culture conversion after four months of treatment can decrease the waiting time to decide about regimen efficacy, say researchers.

Research undertaken in India shows accredited social health activists can be among the best treatment supporters of DR-TB patients. They decrease, or prevent, the proportion of ‘transfer out’ cases. This is possibly a result of training they have received, including counselling.

Public Health Action is the free access, online journal of The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. The journal focuses on TB, lung health, non-communicable diseases and related public health issues. The March 2022 issue is available here.