Starting HIV treatment at a CD4 cell count above 500 reduced the risk of serious illness including tuberculosis (TB), and death, by 44% when compared to starting treatment according to World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, results from the seven-year Temprano study show. The findings were presented on Wednesday (February 25) at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2015) in Seattle, USA.

The vast majority of people with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) diagnosed in the world’s most extensive outbreak have acquired their infection from another person, not as the result of the failure of treatment for multidrug-resistant strains of tuberculosis (MDR-TB), N Sarita Shah told the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2015) in Seattle, USA, on Wednesday.

26 February 2015 - Romania - The Romanian government this week approved the National Strategy for TB Control for the period 2015-2020. The Strategy aims to reduce TB incidence and mortality by providing prevention, screening, diagnosis, treatment and an increased adherence to treatment as recommended by WHO. Despite progress in the last 12 years, Romania still has one of the highest rates of TB in the European Union. It is four times above the EU average, and it has one of the lowest rates of treatment success with rising rates of TB infection.

On 24 February 2015 Bangladesh on behalf of the 34 Least Developed Country members (LDCs) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) submitted a request for an extension of the transitional period under article 66.1 TRIPS with respect to pharmaceutical products until the country is no longer classified as LDC.[1] The original extension, set to expire on 1^st January 2016, specifically removes the obligation for LDCs to comply with Section 5 (Patents) and Section 7 (Protection of Undisclosed Information) of Part II of TRIPS, including any obligation to enforce rights under these provisions.

Global health partners met in Geneva to begin the process of building a new approach to better determine health needs and constraints and addressing them in countries.

SIGN ON LETTER to global actors and drug companies: Please provide organizational sign-ons by 6 March.

This price reduction is expected to save up to USD 22 million annually, enabling treatment for more people living with MDR-TB.

As the U.S. Trade Representative holds a hearing today to discuss how countries protect intellectual property, the pharmaceutical industry hopes to persuade the agency that countries should only be allowed to grant licenses to companies to make low-cost generic drugs when there is a health emergency. That posture, however, contradicts the position taken by the World Health Organization.

KIEV, Ukraine, 24 February 2015 – The Government of Ukraine, civil society groups and the Global Fund will intensify efforts against HIV and tuberculosis after signing new grant agreements for US$134 million.

This week at the World Trade Organization intellectual property committee meeting, least-developed countries submitted a request to extend a waiver allowing them not to enforce intellectual property rights on pharmaceutical products. The countries have extended the waiver before, but this time they are seeking to make it indefinite, until they are no longer considered LDCs.