CNS: October 2013

MDR-TB a challenge in Malawi

Sam Banda Jnr, Malawi

Malawi’s National Tuberculosis Programme (NTP) Programme manager James Mpunga says the problems of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) is a challenge to the Southern African country compared to Extensively-Drug Resistant TB ( XDR-TB), observing that it is high time new vaccines were developed. He said that with patients not always taking the drugs as directed, MDR-TB and XDR-TB strains have emerged. Mpunga, nevertheless, discloses that Malawi has a problem with MDR-TB and not XDRTB yet.

Diana Esther Wangari - CNS
MDR-TB is a form of TB that is resistant to at least the medicines rifampicin (R) and isoniazid (H). This makes it more difficult and expensive to treat. Compared to six months for a typical TB case, it can take up to two years to treat MDR-TB and the treatment is 100 times more expensive. Proof of the efficacy of shorter treatment regimens would signal real progress in helping to reduce the time and cost of addressing some cases of MDR-TB and this topic is addressed in several sessions during the conference.

Shobha Shukla - CNS
According to the recently released WHO Global TB Report 2013, 450,000 people fell ill with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and 170,000 died from the disease in 2012 alone. China, India and the Russian Federation have the highest burden of MDR-TB followed by 24 other countries. Although the number of people detected worldwide with rapid diagnostic tests increased to 94,000 in 2012, three out of four (75%) MDR-TB cases still remain without a diagnosis. Also, just over 77,000 (82%) of these 94,000 people with MDR-TB were started on second-line treatment in 2012.

Bobby Ramakant - CNS
"2013 has been a year of tremendous progress. I am optimistic that paediatric TB will no longer be 'the neglected of the neglected'. With help of UNITAID and US Agency for International Development (USAID) we are embarking on significant changes in this direction” said Dr Melvin Spigelman, President and CEO of Global Alliance of TB Drug Development (TB Alliance). He was addressing the TB Alliance Stakeholders’ Association Annual meeting before the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health opens in Paris later this week.

Citizen News Service (CNS) will facilitate a small team of correspondents to provide issue-based and thematic coverage from the forthcoming 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Paris, France. To get CNS conference reporting from the 44th Union World Conference on Lung Health, please join the Global Stop-TB eForum or follow us on Twitter (@bobbyramakant, #LungHealth) or on Facebook or visit us online. If you are attending this Union conference, please be welcome to get interviewed by one of CNS correspondents. To coordinate, please email CNS Managing Editor Shobha Shukla.

Globally around 300 million people suffer from asthma, yet for many of them living in low- and middle-income countries access to quality-assured, affordable asthma essential medicines still remains a distant dream. This was revealed in a study conducted by Dr Zaheer Babar from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Auckland and Dr Karen Bissell from the University’s School of Population Health and International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and published in the journal PharmacoEconomics.

Personal Stories of Women and Transgender with TB/ MDR-TB/ TB-HIV

Personal stories of women and transgender with TB/ MDR TB/ TB-HIV

Voices From The Field: Need to make TB programmes gender sensitive

Voices from the field: Need to make TB programmes gender sensitive

Children: The Innocent Victims Of Adult Follies

Shobha Shukla - CNS
It is estimated there are more than 5 million people sick with multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) in the world today, which afflicts approximately 440,000 people each year, including children. Likewise, 35.3 million people are living with HIV out of which 3.3 million are children. Most of these children acquire the virus from their HIV-infected mothers during pregnancy, birth or breastfeeding, while poverty, weak immune systems, malnourishment, HIV, and maternal TB make children more vulnerable to getting TB from infected adults. 74, 000 children succumb to TB every year while AIDS related paediatric deaths are 230,000.

Shobha Shukla - CNS
India has certainly come a long way forward in its response to providing access to standard WHO recommended anti-TB treatment through Directly Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS) to more than 14.2 million (1.42 crores) people across the country. Yet TB continues to remain one of the key public health priorities in India with Multi Drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) becoming a major concern.

Chhatra Karki, Nepal
(First published in Kapan Online, Nepal, 14 October 2013)
The ‘Roadmap for childhood TB: Toward zero deaths’ brought out by the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung disease (The Union), World Health Organization (WHO), Stop TB Partnership and other institutions, has not come a day too early. It is indeed high time for countries to prioritise implementation of childhood TB programmes and take effective steps to prevent this curable disease from taking the lives of 72,000 children around the globe each year.

Despite challenges of health systems and the biggest TB disease burden globally, India has certainly come a long way forward in its response to providing access to standard WHO recommended anti-TB treatment through Directly Observed Treatment Short course (DOTS) to more than 14.2 million (1.42 crores) people across the country. Yet, despite successes TB continues to remain one of the key public health priorities in India.

Alice Tembe, Swaziland
The Global Childhood TB Roadmap was released on the 1st October 2013 in Washington DC, calling for doubled efforts in research, mainstreaming and commitment to combating TB deaths among children under the age of 15 years. It is notable that with the growing burden of the disease coupled with HIV-AIDS, the focus to find a cure, a prophylaxis and better management drugs could have overcome the need to address children’s needs.

Shobha Shukla - CNS
It was a indeed a humbling experience for me to meet Ajay, a middle aged graduate from Muzzafarnagar, UP. Ajay was one of the rare cases of extensively drug resistant TB (XDR-TB) who had tested negative, but was still under treatment, and recovering in the MDR-TB Ward of Rajan Babu Institute of Pulmonary Medicine and Tuberculosis (RBIPMT), New Delhi, when I spoke to him (or rather he insisted that he speak to me) in February, 2013. He was very keen to share his agonizing experiences with the rest of the world so that others would not suffer the same fate as his due to ignorance about diagnosis and treatment of TB.

Sam Banda Jr, Malawi
(First published in BNL Times, Malawi on 8 October 2013)
The lives of more than 74,000 children lost to Tuberculosis (TB) each year could be saved according to the first plan tailored to address TB in children. International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, World Health Organisation (WHO) and Stop TB Partnership are among the organization which have come up with the plan. The roadmap estimates that at least US$120 million per year would be needed to address childhood TB.

Founders of the American non-profit organisation The Hummingbird Project, Marilyn McHugh and Chris Kennedy, delivered a talk on the topic "Beneficial Soil Microorganisms" at Giri Institute of Development Studies on 8th October 2013. The Hummingbird Project strives to empower communities devastated by industrialized, chemical farming to regain control of their food supply. In their lecture, Chris and Marilyn spoke about the importance of microbial life in the soil, its role in enhancing soil fertility and how the indiscriminate use of chemical inputs on farms obstructs this process by destroying soil life.

Photo Credit: Dr Essam Elmoghazy

Dr. Essam Elmoghazy, Egypt
Consumption, phthisis, scrofula, Pott's disease, and the White Plague are some of the various terms used to refer to tuberculosis throughout history. Today, more than 2 billion people worldwide are infected with the bacterium that causes TB. Although most infected people do not become ill, in 2011, an estimated 8.7 million people became sick with TB, and 1.4 million people died, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO also revealed that up to 74 000 children die from TB each year and children account for around half a million new cases annually.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, India
(First published in Mangalorean News, India on 4th October 2013)
On the morning of 1st October, 2013, the very first plan of its kind was launched toward the goal of zero deaths in childhood TB. The launch was jointly brought about by the World Health Organization (WHO), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Stop TB Partnership, UNICEF and other partners, bringing out of the shadows this disease in children, which has been neglected so far.

Okeoghene Oghenekaro, Nigeria
(First published in News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on 2nd October 2013)
World Health Organisation (WHO) in Washington DC on Tuesday launched the first ever roadmap designed to end childhood tuberculosis deaths globally, a report said. The report was published by an Indian-based online publication on global health issues, the Citizens News Service (CNS), made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Wednesday. It stated that the roadmap was launched by WHO, Stop TB Partnership, International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, also known as The Union and other partners.

Dr S Chaturvedi, DTO

Bobby Ramakant - CNS
The "Roadmap for Childhood Tuberculosis: Towards Zero Deaths" - the first-ever plan which specifically addresses TB in children and outlines the path towards zero deaths from childhood TB - was jointly launched on 1st October 2013, by the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Stop TB Partnership and other partners.

Chief K Masimba Biriwasha - CNS
According to an ambitious plan launched today by leaders in the TB field, a total of USD 120 million is require to stem the TB among children (including those co-infected with TB and HIV). The Roadmap for Childhood TB: Toward Zero Death, outlines three priority areas that require attention in order to turn the tide in the fight again TB including: a sense of urgency beyond the TB community, improvement in research, policy development and clinical practices as well as increased funding.

Chhatra Karki, Nepal
(First published in Kapan Online, Nepal)
More than 74,000 children are dying each year by tuberculosis all over the world. In this context, a lucid roadmap has been declared by International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), World Health Organization (WHO), Stop TB Partnership and many other leading agencies of the world who are fighting against this disease. It is estimated that 120 million US dollar will be spent to eliminate childhood tuberculosis and tuberculosis with HIV infection.

Joseph Elunya, Uganda
(First published in The Continent Observer, Uganda)
The lives of more than 74,000 children lost to tuberculosis (TB) each year could be saved according to the first plan specifically to address TB in children, released today by the world’s leading agencies in the fight against the disease. The road map, released by International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), World Health Organization (WHO), Stop TB Partnership, and other partners.

[Images] [हिन्दी] A number of secular parties, intellectuals and organizations came together in a public meeting held to mark Gandhi Jayanti in front of Vidhan Sabha Lucknow where an appeal was made to uproot communal forces. The meeting began with lines from Gandhiji’s favourite poem: ‘Ishwar allah tero naam, sabko sanmati de bhagwaan’.

Shobha Shukla - CNS
A hot and dusty 2 hours ride on bumpy roads brought me from Kanpur to the nondescript Rasoolabad block of Kanpur Dehat, where a Home Based Post Natal Care Project (HBPNC) has brought about measurable improvements in maternal and child health. This project, funded by the World Bank and executed by a Kanpur based NGO Shramik Bharti in Rasoolabad over a period of April 2012--September 2013, has proved to be an effective and innovative approach to avert maternal and neonatal deaths in the rural community by focussing on home based management of Postpartum Haemorrhage (PPH), as a large number of maternal deaths occur in the postpartum period of 42 days after delivery, mainly due to haemorrhage.

The "Roadmap for Childhood Tuberculosis: Towards Zero Deaths" - the first ever plan which specifically addresses TB in children and outlines the path towards zero deaths from childhood TB - was jointly launched on 1st October 2013, in Washington DC by global leaders in TB control: the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Stop TB Partnership and other partners.