Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a common in many cases lethal, infectious mycobacteria, usually caused by different strains of mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. It is spread through the air, when people have a positive MTB infection coughs, sneezes, or otherwise transferred.
 
Usin' UV light to kill microbes...
:cool:
High-Tech Device Reduces Risk of Hospital Infections
January 31, 2012 : The World Health Organization says hundreds of thousands of people around the world develop life-threatening illnesses each year from antibiotic-resistant organisms that are often found in hospitals. Ridding hospitals of contamination has become a major challenge and a huge expense. But a Texas-based company, called Xenex Healthcare Services may have the solution to this problem - with a device that uses light to kill micro-organisms.
This machine fires bursts of ultraviolet, or UV, light that penetrate the cells of micro-organisms and kill them. The organisms have no chance to adapt and gain immunity as they might with a chemical, says Dr. Mark Stibich, Xenex Healthcare co-founder and chief scientific officer . “The high energy UV penetrates the cell walls of organisms and it is absorbed by the DNA, so it is really treating the organisms or disinfecting the organism at the root of where any mutation would develop," said Stibich. Dr. Stibich says the device uses concentrated bursts of pulse xenon light, a technology that has been around for more than 30 years.

But Xenex has developed the concept further. Its device can sweep a room in a matter of minutes, eliminating most organisms on surface areas. No one understands the importance of that more than Xenex Healthcare's Chief Executive Officer, Brian Cruver, who became sick some years ago after being treated at a hospital. “I went in for a simple procedure and it turned into, well, I acquired an infection in a hospital," said Cruver.

Cruver went through two months of intravenous antibiotic treatment to recover, but the experience introduced him to the crisis hospitals face. “Finding out that hospital infections are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, that hospital infections kill more people than AIDS, breast cancer and automobile accidents combined; that is staggering," he said. Xenex is a small company. But Cruver sees great potential for growth as hospitals here and in other countries discover how well the device works. “The fact is this is a huge problem; it is global," he said. "Every hospital needs this product.”

The Xenex device is being thoroughly tested at the top cancer hospital in the United States - MD Anderson Cancer Clinic in Houston. Dr. Roy Chemaly the hospital's chief of infection control, says patients there are especially vulnerable. “We know they already have compromised immune systems, they have already infections and they are at risk for serious infections and infections from resistant organisms," said Chemaly. Dr. Chemaly says preliminary tests show close to 100 per cent disinfection using the Xenex device after a room has already been given an initial cleaning. But he says he won't have full results for at least another year.

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Hi

Tuberculosis,this disease develops particularly who are the chain smoker and suffer in other addiction,in the very initial stage its treatment must be very effective .
 
Tuberculosis is caused by mycobacteria and generally it was seen in Lungs in human being. It was infectious disease that a person that TB and another person leaving with it and drink patient water and all. So another person also get this disease.
 
Gates Foundation to help fund TB research...
:clap2:
Gates Foundation gives $220 mln for TB research
15 Mar.`12 - Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates and his wife are to give $220 million over five years to the non-profit biotech firm Aeras to develop vaccines to fight tuberculosis, a company statement said Thursday.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating the money to Aeras which from its bases in the United States and South Africa has developed six possible TB vaccines that are being tested across Africa, Asia, Europe and America. "This infusion of funding must be seen as a global call to action in response to one of the world's deadliest diseases," said Jim Connolly, Aeras's president and chief executive, expressing gratitude for the massive grant. "It will allow Aeras to expand upon existing partnerships in Europe, Africa, China, and around the world."

A total of 8.8 million people globally fell ill with the contagious lung disease in 2010 and around 1.4 million died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Trevor Mundel, president of the global health program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said the development of successful vaccines "would be the single greatest advance in the global fight against TB."

Once known as "consumption" for the slow wasting away of the people who died of it, one out of every three people is thought to be infected by the airborne TB organism, though only a fraction go on to develop the disease. The WHO estimates the global economic burden of TB is $12 billion a year, with India and China together accounting for more than half that cost.

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In the hunt for a more effective TB vaccine...
:eusa_clap:
Researchers unveil global plan in TB vaccine hunt
20 Mar.`12 - Researchers on Tuesday unveiled a blueprint to guide the next steps in the hunt for a more effective vaccine against tuberculosis as the world's most advanced clinical trial nears its end.
The plan is part of a global push aimed at giving TB research the same high profile -- and funding -- that goes to diseases like AIDS. "A blueprint has been developed, essentially a document on research plans for the next five to 10 years," said Hassan Mahomed, who heads clinical trials for the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative. The fresh impetus to the research comes as scientists await the release in early 2013 of results from the world's most advanced TB vaccine trial -- one of 12 currently underway. "That's quite an exciting development, because for the first time we will know if any of these new vaccines will have positive developments for preventing TB," Mahomed said.

Even if that vaccine proves unsuccessful, scientists are eagerly watching the results for critical insights into how to develop other vaccines. The new blueprint sets international guidelines on how to compare the efficacy of TB vaccines, and looks forward to the next phases in development, when any viable vaccine would need to be licensed and distributed. "To eliminate TB, we need to find a vaccine and there is still a lot to be done before we reach that stage," said Gavin Churchyard, chief executive of the Aurum Institute, a research group in Johannesburg. "We aim to halve the burden of infection and death by 2016. New vaccines could significantly advance the fight against TB in both HIV positive and HIV negative patients," he said.

A vaccine was developed 90 years ago, but it only protects children against some forms of the disease. Adults who develop TB must undergo drugs for treatment, but new drug-resistant forms of the disease have confounded doctors. The disease preys on weakened immune systems, so it has become a major scourge in South Africa which has one of the world's highest HIV levels, with 18 percent of adults infected. That has made the country a key testing ground for vaccine research, hosting six clinical trials. Once known as "consumption" for the slow wasting away of terminally-ill patients, one out of every three people is thought to be infected by the airborne TB organism, though only a fraction go on to develop the disease.

Source
 
World childhood annual TB death toll...
:eusa_pray:
70,000 children 'dying every year from tuberculosis'
Tue, Mar 20, 2012 - As many as 70,000 children are dying every year from tuberculosis, as the curable disease often goes unnoticed due to a failure by health workers to recognise the symptoms, the WHO said Wednesday.
"Often TB is undiagnosed in children... because the symptoms in children are not very specific," said Malgosia Grzemska, coordinator at the World Health Organization's Stop TB department.

Unlike adults who often cough incessantly when infected with the disease, "children may not even cough, but may just be less playful, they may be lethargic," said Grzemska.

The UN health agency's expert said that ensuring screening of TB for all children in households with infected adults would help to detect cases early.

Children living in households with TB who are found not ill should be given preventive therapy while those infected should be treated early, she said, adding that about half a million babies and children contract the disease annually.

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One out of three has tuberculosis...
:eek:
World losing battle against TB, cautions WHO
Sunday 13th May, 2012 - One third of the world's population is suffering from tuberculosis, and the disease could become incurable if governments fail to act, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned.
Dearth of funding for public health programmes, the sale of inaccurate blood tests and the misuse of drugs, especially in the private health sector, are hampering the fight against the disease and leading to drug resistance, says the organisation. Extreme drug-resistant strains of TB have now been found in 70 countries, and doctors in India reported four patients this year, who did not respond to any drugs at all. Doctors in Iran and Italy have also found patients who are apparently resistant to all drugs. "What we are seeing worldwide is the emergence of strains of the bacillus causing tuberculosis that are resistant to most of the drugs we have available," the Independent quoted Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO's Stop TB campaign, as saying.

The rate of TB deaths had declined drastically - by 40 per cent between 1990 and 2000 - after a worldwide health campaign, which was particularly successful in China. But the emergence of drug-resistant strains threatens to arrest progress and jeopardises the WHO's goal of eradicating the disease as a public health problem by 2050. Drug resistance is increasing as doctors are failing to prescribe the right number of drugs or because patients do not succeed in finishing the course of antibiotics. In certain cases public clinics run out of stock, but increasingly, according to Dr Raviglione, private sector practitioners are to be blamed.

In India, which has the highest prevalence of TB in the world, 50-70 per cent of patients refer to private doctors when they begin coughing. "They don't want to queue in public clinics that are overwhelmed and congested. But the problem with private practitioners is you don't know who you are meeting and sometimes these people are just incompetent," he said. Instead of prescribing the four-drug, six-month regime recommended by the WHO, private clinics prescribe either too many drugs, "which is a waste of money and increases toxicity", or too few, which, Dr Raviglione said, increases drug resistance. "Many doctors will not adhere to the correct regime of TB treatment. Often TB is not diagnosed: they just suspect it. They give two tuberculosis drugs, and say come back in four weeks; that is very common," Professor Sarman Singh, a microbiologist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said. A study of 100 Mumbai private doctors discovered that they prescribed 80 different drug regimes, instead of following WHO standards.

But Professor Singh said that Indians who can manage to stay away from public hospitals will do so. The sale of blood tests by private companies, an extremely lucrative business, is also a problem, according to the WHO. "These serological blood tests can give you false positives and false negatives of up to 50 per cent, so you have a one in two chance that your test result will be wrong. These are done in the private sector, not public clinics, because they are not recommended by the WHO. So private physicians charge you 20 dollars for a test which is useless," Dr Raviglione said. The tests are made mostly by Western companies, but are sold to developing countries. The WHO called for these tests to be withdrawn more than six months ago, and the Indian government recently suggested a ban, but this is only effective in the public health sector; the tests are still being used by private clinics.

World losing battle against TB, cautions WHO
 
Tuberculosis is infestious disease it is cause by various strains of mycobacteria. It is infectious and one get easily infected by TB. The classic symptoms of TB is chronic cough, fever, weight loss. Generally people get Tb when they are exposed to the TB environment.
 
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TB kills about 1.4m people a year across the world...
:eusa_eh:
Hope for more effective TB treatment
24 July 2012 - Hopes of a new, more effective therapy for tuberculosis have been raised following the results of early trials.
The study showed three drugs given in combination killed more than 99% of TB bacteria after two weeks of treatment. The therapy appeared to be equally effective on the drug-resistant form of the disease in the trials of 85 patients, a team led by Stellenbosch University in South Africa reported. Larger studies are now taking place to further test the technique.

'Better, faster'

TB is one of the oldest and most deadly infectious diseases. About 1.4m people a year die each year from it, mainly in developing countries. Current treatments usually involve people taking drugs daily for six months. The drug-resistant strain is much harder to treat and can involve up to two years of therapy. Of the three drugs used in this study, published in the Lancet, one is new, while another is not yet licensed.

Andreas Diacon, lead researcher for the trial, said: "The results of this study give healthcare providers on the front-lines of the TB epidemic hope for better, faster tools needed to stop this disease." Mario Raviglione, a TB expert at the World Health Organization, said: "The results look strongly promising from this early trial. "We could shorten drug regimens substantially for everyone, regardless of whether the form of TB is sensitive or multi-drug resistant."

BBC News - Hope for more effective TB treatment
 
Viruses can make people more susceptible to bacterial infections...
:eek:
'Wrong' immune response aids TB
28 February 2013 - Some bacteria, including tuberculosis, are able to invade because the body launches the 'wrong' immune response, say researchers.
Instead of fighting off tuberculosis, people with a severe infection produce a protein which attacks viruses, the journal Science reports. About 8.7 million people are infected with tuberculosis every year. The findings may explain why viruses can make people more susceptible to bacterial infections. A spring peak in tuberculosis infections may be linked to the effects of viruses circulating in winter, experts suggested. US researchers first identified the phenomenon using leprosy - which is caused by a similar bacterium to tuberculosis.

Looking at skin lesions in leprosy patients, the team found that two different immune proteins were present. In those with a milder form of the disease, they found a protein associated with a bacterial immune response - interferon-gamma. Whereas in patients with a more serious form of leprosy, a protein associated with a viral response - interferon-beta - was prominent. Further work showed the genes for interferon-beta - the virus-fighting protein - were more frequently expressed in the blood of tuberculosis patients with more severe disease.

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Tuberculosis attacks the lungs

In disguise

The researchers said in those with severe disease, the body was responding as if it was attacking a virus, enabling the bacteria to remain hidden and replicate unchallenged within cells. Not only is interferon-beta an ineffective weapon against bacteria, it can block the action of interferon gamma - which is when bacteria can gain a foothold, the researchers said. In the face of a real viral infection it may mean that the attention of the immune system is diverted letting a bacterial infection in. Prof Robert Modlin, a dermatology and microbiology expert at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the study raises the possibility that a decrease or increase of one of these two proteins could shift the balance from mild to more serious disease. "We may find that therapeutic interventions to block or enhance specific interferon responses may be an effective strategy to alter the balance in favour of protection against bacterial diseases."

The results may also help to explain why outbreaks of tuberculosis in winter such as one currently spreading among homeless groups in Los Angeles are quick to take hold. A potent combination of people sleeping in close quarters in shelters, flu outbreaks diverting the body's immune response to the viral setting and a lack of vitamin D from sunlight, which also impacts the immune response, may be to blame, they suggested. "With TB on the rise, this scenario could play out not only in cities in the United States but all over the world," Prof Modlin said. Prof Ajit Lalvani, director of the Tuberculosis Research Unit at Imperial College London said there is a spring peak in rates of tuberculosis which have been attributed to low levels of vitamin D. "But this shows there could be at least one other reason - that other viral infections are leading some months down the line to progression from latent to active TB disease. "The timing fits, but that remains to be proven."

BBC News - 'Wrong' immune response aids TB
 
TB hidden in bone marrow may recur after clear lung X-ray...
:eusa_eh:
Tuberculosis Evades Detection by Hiding in Bone Marrow
March 01, 2013 - It's been a long-standing medical mystery: how tuberculosis (TB), a potentially fatal respiratory infection, can spring to life in a patient after lying dormant for many years. Scientists have discovered that the bacterium which causes TB hides in cells in the bone marrow, making it hard to treat with antibiotics.
Unlike other bacterial infections, tuberculosis is notoriously difficult to treat. Despite the availability of antibiotics for 50 years, treatment for TB involves a rigorous multi-drug regimen of up to six months' duration. That’s led researchers to conclude that Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the pathogen that causes the deadly lung ailment, is lurking in tissue, where neither antibiotics nor the body’s protective immune system can kill it. One potential hiding place is bone marrow, a spongy tissue inside bones containing stem cells responsible for manufacturing a variety of blood cells. Marrow has mechanisms for keeping out foreign substances, including antibiotics.

Researcher Antonio Campos-Neto, director of the Forsyth Center for Global Infectious Diseases in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues at Stanford University School of Medicine in California conducted test tube, or in vitro, experiments to see what happened when bone marrow cells and the TB bacterium were mixed together. “And sure enough, you know, in vitro experiments show the microorganism could be internalized very easily inside the stem cells,” said Campos-Neto. That finding, according to Campos-Neto, may explain why the lung disease exists in two forms -- a latent phase in which individuals can be infected for decades without symptoms, and an active phase, characterized by extreme illness and, without treatment, death.

And it may have implications for the treatment of TB, explaining why antibiotics do not always rid patients of the disease. “Many, many [TB] patients who have been successfully treated, later on in their life they can come back with tuberculosis again. And nobody ever understood why this was so difficult, and now we start to have this firsthand [knowledge] that it’s because the TB is hiding itself in some protective niche that drugs cannot reach,” explained Campos-Neto.

An estimated 2.2 billion people around the world live symptom-free with latent tuberculosis. Once active, the illness kills upwards of 1.7 million people every year. Campos-Neto says researchers need to learn more about this complex disease so new diagnostic tests and effective treatments can be developed. An article by Antonio Campos-Neto and colleagues on latent tuberculosis is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

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