“Finally, someone is talking about this.” I heard this refrain frequently at the recent International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after […]
MSF
Rachel ter Horst on hopeful initial outcomes of combination treatment in patients with HIV and visceral leishmaniasis co-infection
Visceral leishmaniasis (VL), a protozoan disease transmitted by sandflies, is the second biggest parasitic killer worldwide (after malaria). In Ethiopia, the host country for the recent International Conference on HIV/AIDS […]
Mit Philips on the ICASA conference: donor retreat and its consequences for patients and communities
The 2011 International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) conference in Addis Ababa was an experience in contradictions. Presentations about promising new strategies created by scientific breakthroughs, […]
Beverly Collin: Being bold on a budget at Lille
After the initial orientation to the vast Union World Conference on Lung Health (Lille, France), I settled into a series of thought provoking sessions and symposia. There were big concerns […]
Grania Brigden: Paediatric tuberculosis: out of the dark
Children with tuberculosis have been neglected for too long. Children tend to have paucibacillary disease and therefore are less infectious than adults, meaning they have not been prioritised by the WHO […]
Rachel ter Horst: Inspiring progress in the fight against sleeping sickness
Bamako, Mali. Leopard print chairs, a rather dark conference room filled mainly with African men dressed in either dark suits or colourful long boubous, with some women and westerners here […]
Grania Brigden: Capreomycin shortage – symptom of a bigger problem in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
Of the 9.4 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases diagnosed each year, approximately 5% are multidrug resistant (MDR). MDR-TB treatment is demanding for patients, requiring a complex treatment course lasting 18–24 […]
Philipp du Cros: The personal experiences of patients living with MDR-TB
What goes through a person’s mind when they are told they have multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and face at least eight months of injections and nearly two years of medication? […]
Nathan Ford: Improving treatment for severe malaria
Major advances in drug therapy are rare, particularly in the neglected field of tropical diseases. So it was quite appropriate that when the results of the largest trial ever done […]
Rebecca Welfare on World TB Day: dilemmas in tuberculosis treatment
The weekly multidisciplinary committee on drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) had assembled to discuss the case of a young man who had started treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) 12 months previously. […]