FIVE TOP headlines:

• Four countries in Africa to get new diagnostic tools for drug-resistant Tuberculosis (TB)
• Recommendations of World Health Organisation (WHO) meetings on TB vaccines released
• Possibility to predict TB outbreak by examining first two TB cases: study
• Non-G8 countries are major donors for AIDS programmes
• People living with HIV to get Isoniazid Preventive therapy in Zimbabwe

News-in-detail:

Four countries in Africa to get new diagnostic tools for drug-resistant TB

The news of four countries in Africa will get new diagnostic tools to test drug-resistant TB and patients will get their reports in two days (instead of two-three months in some cases) was in spotlight. This roll-out will begin in Lesotho first, where multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB rates are among the highest in the world, and then in Ethiopia, Ivory Coast and Congo.

In next four years, seventeen countries are likely to receive the new test through the WHO ’Stop TB Partnership’s Global Drug Facility’.

The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the WHO’s Global Laboratory Initiative will help countries build the capacity ; such as laboratory equipment and trained staff to carry out these new tests.

South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Service, Medical Research Council (MRC) and FIND, had conducted clinical trials on 30,000 suspected patients of multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) in South Africa in 2007-2008, who were tested with both:

• New rapid diagnostic test (which was being tested in this clinical trial)
• Regular conventional test

The results of this study were announced at the opening of the 2008 South African national TB conference (July 1-4, 2008) that these new rapid tests were effective at quickly identifying MDR-TB in resource-poor settings.

As a result, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has endorsed the use of the test in all countries with MDR-TB.

About the new test:

The test uses polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology to amplify Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA and look for genetic mutations that cause resistance to drugs.

Cost of new test: At United States Dollar (USD) five per patient, the test halves diagnosis costs excluding associated infrastructure and laboratory capacity costs necessary for molecular testing.

Recommendations of WHO meetings on TB vaccines released

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s initiative for vaccine research had earlier sponsored three meetings to discuss assay harmonisation for new TB vaccine trials.

In their report, the authors stress that there should be a single and simple harmonised assay for all TB vaccine trials.

The vaccine commonly used all over the world to protect against TB is known as Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine. At best, it is 80 per cent effective for a period of around 15 years. However, in many developing countries its effectiveness is very much less than this. However, in children living with HIV, the BCG vaccine has been reported to be counter-productive

For many years, insufficient efforts were made to develop a new vaccine, to either replace or be used in combination with BCG. Now, however, many potential new TB vaccines are under development. Obviously, it is important to be able to compare their effectiveness but several different methods have been used by researchers to assess their vaccines, making it hard to see, which is best.

Possibility to predict TB outbreak by examining first two TB cases: study

It may be possible to predict tuberculosis (TB) outbreaks by examining characteristics of the first two cases of the disease, according to the report of Dutch researchers. There’s a 56 per cent chance of a large TB outbreak if the first two patients: are diagnosed within three months of each other; live in urban areas; and if one or both patients are of sub-Saharan African nationality, said the study results. This study was based on the analysis of data on more than 18,200 Dutch patients with TB between 1993 and 2004.

Non-G8 countries are major donors for AIDS programmes

At the recent summit of the Group of Eight Industrialised Countries (G8 Summit) in Hokkaido, Japan, a report was released by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Kaiser Family Foundation, which revealed that of the estimated USD 18.1 billion needed to address the HIV epidemic in low- and middle- income countries in 2007, the G8 member countries gave out a paltry USD 4.5 billion.

People living with HIV to get Isoniazid Preventive therapy in Zimbabwe

People living with HIV in Zimbabwe will get Isoniazid Preventive therapy (IPT), announced the Zimbabwe’s Health and Child Welfare minister, David Parirenyatwa past week.

IPT prevents latent TB infection from becoming active TB disease.

Health workers in the country will be trained on isoniazid use, after which the drug will be rolled out nationwide.