TB

20-03-2008 -- Geneva (ICRC) – Despite international efforts to curb tuberculosis, this infectious disease is on the rise.

Prisons have to be at the centre of national TB control programmes, as they are a breeding ground for tuberculosis, and particularly for drug-resistant forms of the disease, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB infection, as seen through electron microscope    » read more »

17 March 2008 -- A World Health Organization report says the rate of tuberculosis infections is going down across the globe, but also notes that progress in the fight against the disease is too slow.

Tuberculosis is a contagious and deadly airborne bacterial disease that infected more than nine million people in 2006 and killed 1.5 million.

But the latest World Health Organization report has some good news - the rate of TB infection is slowing down.    » read more »

12 November 2007 -- Experts on lung disease meeting in South Africa are warning the world could face a tuberculosis crisis if drug resistant strains of TB are not contained and if TB testing does not become a regular part of HIV treatment.

Three thousand experts from 100 countries ended a five-day conference in Cape Town warning that urgent measures are needed to address the spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis and its growing presence among victims of HIV/AIDS.    » read more »

18 September 2007 -- The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has announced $280 million in grants to fight the global tuberculosis epidemic. The money will be used to develop vaccines, diagnostic tests and drugs to treat a disease that kills nearly two million people each year.

The Gates Foundation has pledged $900 million in grants to fight TB by 2015, and the $280 million in awards are part of that package.

With Tuesday's announcement, the Foundation has met almost half of its commitment.    » read more »

Government Response Presents a "Disturbing Picture," Senators Say

August 3, 2007 -- Washington, DC – Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., and Senator Hillary Clinton, D-NY, Friday announced that the Government Accountability Office has agreed to investigate how a man believed to be infected with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) was able to slip past government officials and reenter the United States even when health officials knew of his medical condition.    » read more »

July 10, 2007 -- SANTA FE – Today New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and New Mexico’s Congressional delegation urged the US Department of Agriculture to maintain the State’s status as a Tuberculosis Free state. In a letter to USDA Secretary Mike Johanns, Governor Richardson requested that dairy cattle in eastern New Mexico recently found to be infected with bovine TB be treated as a single herd. Bovine TB is a bacterial disease that affects primarily the upper respiratory tract of cattle.    » read more »

June 6, 2007 -- Cannon House Office Building (Remarks as Prepared)

Introduction

Thank you Mr. Chairman for the opportunity to share with the Committee some of the policy, procedures and processes we have in place with our Federal partners for the Nation’s biodefense across our borders.    » read more »

Senate Hearing Today Continues to Raise Questions About Failures to Monitor, Treat and Control Diseases like Drug-Resistant TB

June 6, 2007 -- Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton today called on Dr. Julie Gerberding, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to immediately develop protocols to guide the actions of national, state and local health officials when suspected cases of extensively drug resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) or multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) arise.    » read more »

06 June 2007 -- U.S. health and government officials are pledging to tighten procedures in the wake of an incident in which a man infected with a drug-resistant form of tuberculosis was able to travel out of the United States and return, evading health protection measures at the border. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill, where the man, Andrew Speaker, challenged testimony by officials.    » read more »

05 June 2007 -- International public health officials are calling for a stronger global response to drug-resistant tuberculosis. The call was made after American lawyer Andrew Speaker, who is infected with a form of tuberculosis that is resistant to most antibiotics, traveled aboard commercial airliners from the United States to Europe and back. VOA's Jessica Berman reports.

Officials at the World Health Organization estimate there are at least 400,000 new cases of tuberculosis each year that do not respond to two or more standard antibiotics.    » read more »

June 5, 2007 -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have notified the state Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) that a Montanan was on board one of the flights taken by an Atlanta man who is currently hospitalized in Denver with an extremely serious form of tuberculosis.    » read more »

04 June 2007 -- A U.S. man with a rare form of tuberculosis may soon be considered "relatively non-contagious".

Physicians from the Denver hospital, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, treating Andrew Speaker say he has had two negative tests for TB bacteria and could be allowed brief trips out of his isolated hospital room if a third test comes back negative.

Earlier Monday, Speaker's parents and in-laws said he would not have traveled to Europe if he thought he was at risk to others.    » read more »

WASHINGTON, Friday, June 01, 2007 — While the global health community and residents of several countries are concerned about news reports of the estimated 100 people who may have contracted tuberculosis (TB) from an infected airplane passenger recently, the American Red Cross has been working for two years along the U.S. and Mexican border to prevent the spread of this particularly infectious disease.    » read more »

Briefing Transcript

May 29, 2007 -- DR. JULIE DR. GERBERDING, DIRECTOR, CDC: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for this press conference. I'm here today to describe a situation that has involved many public health officials from around the world who acted together to protect people's health in a circumstance where an individual with drug resistant tuberculosis may have served as a source of exposure.    » read more »