Cases of one of the world's deadliest diseases—tuberculosis—are rising at an alarming rate, despite widespread vaccination. Reasons for the ineffectiveness of the vaccine, especially in regions where this infectious disease is endemic, as well as arguments for replacing the existing vaccine with novel synthetic vaccines, are presented in a review published online August 28th in Trends in Molecular Medicine.

A new global study mapping human-animal diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and Rift Valley fever finds that an "unlucky" 13 zoonoses are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year. The vast majority occur in low- and middle-income countries.

In order to reduce HIV and TB in African prisons, African governments and international health donors should fund criminal justice reforms, experts from Human Rights Watch say in this week's PLoS Medicine.

With a range of diseases, doctors need unique features which they can use to unequivocally identify a patient's illness for an appropriate diagnosis. Scientists therefore search for the biomarkers for an illness or a combination of biomarkers, known as biosignatures, which are as easy as possible to measure. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin have now created complete gene and microRNA expression profiles together with important inflammatory mediators in the blood of tuberculosis and sarcoidosis patients. Although they have identified a signature that distinguishes healthy individuals from patients, the biosignatures of both diseases are nevertheless very similar. It is almost impossible, therefore, to distinguish between tuberculosis and sarcoidosis with just a single signature. A set of different biosignatures is better suited for distinguishing in a first step between diseased and healthy individuals and, in a further step, between the specific diseases.

Up to 30% of the world's population is infected with Tuberculosis (TB), but in many areas of the world, TB diagnosis still relies on insensitive, poorly standardized, and time-consuming methods. A new diagnostic tool, endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), may change that. Dr. Thomas Bodmer shows how it's done in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).

SAN DIEGO, March 26, 2012 — A two-drug combination is one of the most promising advances in decades for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) — a disease that kills 2 million people annually — a scientist reported today at the 243 National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). The treatment, which combines two medications already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), delivers a knockout punch to forms of TB that shrug off other antibiotics.

To coincide with World TB day (24th March), The Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID) publishes a special supplement: 'TUBERCULOSIS and TB/HIV/AIDS: Unanswered Questions and Controversies', guest edited by Professor Alimuddin 'Ali' Zumla (Division of Infection and Immunity, UCL) and Dr. Marco Schito (Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine*).