Political will remains key barrier to deploying BRICS resources towards the development of a new generation of treatments for drug-resistant TB.

New Delhi, 25 November 2014—As US Trade Representative Michael Froman meets high-ranking Indian officials to likely pressure the government to weaken its pro-public health patent law, Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) urged the new Indian Prime Minister to take a strong stand against weakening a law that has helped millions of people in India and across the developing world get access to affordable life-saving medicines.

Tuberculosis (TB) prevalence in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is among the highest in the world, 541 cases/100,000 population/year, with some pockets reported to be three times higher, prompting Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to respond and reach the most affected communities.

Outmoded policies and practices and critical gaps in care for drug-resistant TB are fuelling a worldwide public health crisis, said MSF in a new report, ‘Out of Step: Deadly implementation gaps in the TB response’, released today at the 45^th Conference on Lung Health in Barcelona.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has released their Global Tuberculosis Report 2014.  While TB incidence and mortality rates from TB continue to fall, MSF notes alarming trends in the drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) epidemic and urges action to reverse course.

September 23, 2014 - London/Geneva - A study published this week in PLOS ONE by Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) highlights the potential for social media to support patients undergoing treatment for multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis (TB). The qualitative research examined the experiences of patients and health staff involved in the ‘TB & ME’ collaborative blogging project for patients undergoing treatment for MDR and XDR TB around the world. TB&ME gives MDR-TB patients an opportunity to tell the world about the issues which affect their lives, about how treatment and services could be improved and how it feels to have this disease.

26 September 2014, New Delhi/New York – As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi makes his first official visit to the United States, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is urging the Indian government to resist U.S. pressure to drop the use of public health safeguards in its intellectual property laws, which have enabled India to become the ‘pharmacy of the developing world.’ India supplies affordable generic medicines to people and governments worldwide, including to MSF’s medical humanitarian projects, which are present in more than 60 countries.

Ahead of the RCEP Ministerial Conference to be held in Myanmar on 27-28 August 2014, see letter from Medecins Sans Frontieres addressed to the Indian Minister of State for Commerce & Industry regarding the inclusion of intellectual property (IP) in the negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and its potential impact on access to affordable generic medicines from India.

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Ninety-nine patients in Swaziland who successfully completed their treatment for drug-resistant tuberculosis have been presented with certificates by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) saying “I got tested and cured of TB”.