As the rich countries are still recovering from the economic depression, health financing is surely one of the casualties. Everyone rightly wants most value for every penny spent and tuberculosis care and control is one of the smart investments countries can make when purse strings tighten. That is

Well, perhaps yes. While talking to Citizen News Service - CNS at the 43rd Union World Conference on Lung Health in Kuala Lumpur Mark Harrington, Executive Director of Treatment Action Group (TAG), wondered why we are doing better in responding to HIV, which was discovered only in 1981 and for which

Dr Nils E Billo, has been Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) since 1992 when it was a very small organization with just about a dozen staff and consultants, who focused on tuberculosis. During this long stint, spanning over two decades, Dr

Life expectancy is growing, and in Europe, there will be more old people. Now, a person of 70 years can still do a lot of things. But it is clear that the body deteriorates over time. They say that aging begins to manifest in many ways at 50. For example, the muscular system atrophies and its force

(Based on an exclusive interview Citizen News Service - CNS did with Dr Sirinapha Jittimanee, Public Health Officer, Tuberculosis Bureau, Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Thailand)
Thailand is one of the 22 TB high burden countries in the world. According to the WHO Global

Words of UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Michel Sidibe which I heard first at the Stop TB Partners' Forum in 2009: 'When a virus (HIV) and a bacteria (TB) can work so well together, why can't we?,' still hold true as all countries where TB and HIV co-infection is setting off alarm bells haven't yet ful

World AIDS Day: 1st December
A new report argues that despite considerable advances in the fight against AIDS, the world is already falling behind pace in the effort to begin ending AIDS. But it doesn't have to be that way - according to the assessment in this report, the top-five critical actions

The association between tuberculosis - TB (a communicable disease) and diabetes (a non-communicable disease) and their synergetic role in causing human suffering has been recognized for centuries but recent studies have undoubtedly established a more direct link between the two. Realizing the gravit

Kuala Lumpur: Some 100 TB activists marched through the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on the afternoon of 14th November 2012, landing at the opening ceremony of the 43rd Union World Conference on Lung Health, just as delegates from over 120 countries were taking their seats in the Plenary Hall. The

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Diabetes Foundation in association with the Indian government conducted a pilot project this year screening more than 8,000 tuberculosis patients for diabetes, and over 10,000

Today government delegates from across the world adopted the illicit trade protocol of the global tobacco treaty – the world’s first public health and corporate accountability treaty - but not without a fight from Big Tobacco. In the lead up to the Seoul negotiations, the World Health Organization,

Ms Mary Musoke of Kampala in Uganda is expecting to have her third born child in late March or early April 2013, making the delivery timely for the newborn to get its Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), which debuts in the Uganda public health system for free. Due to the high disease rates of the

According to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), child pneumonia remains a major threat to children under 5 years of age despite the great potential of the pneumococcal vaccine. “Pneumococcal vaccine is an important intervention that is already in use and highl

The growing trend by Asian countries to allow local production of cheap generic drugs got another feather in its cap recently in India. In a landmark victory for patients’ groups fighting against patents to ensure access to medicines, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board (IPAB), while holding t

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of India's oldest and perhaps most neglected public health challenges. It is a disease caused by bacteria that are spread from person to person through the air. Chronic cough (for more than 2 weeks) and fever are the most important symptoms of TB. When a person with TB cough