The World Health Organization reports that over the past 15 years, the Stop TB Strategy has resulted in 36 million people being cured of tuberculosis and eight million lives saved.  Reductions in disease burden achieved to date follow fourteen years of intensive efforts at global, regional and country levels to implement the Stop TB Strategy (2006–) and it’s predecessor, the DOTS strategy (1995–2005).

The Stop TB priorities are to expand, adapt, and improve strategies to control and eliminate TB in support of the World Health Assembly Targets set by 2005 (70% case-detection and 85% cure-rates) and the Millennium Development Goals.

The Stop TB Partnership aims to provide global leadership, strategy, and coordinating mechanisms.  The partnership develops advocacy and resource mobilization strategies in support of these priorities, and coordinates and ‘brokers’ resource flows. Other partners in this WHO program include Eli Lilly, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, as well as Médecins sans Frontières and the IFPMA.

Other initiatives and partnerships working to reduce the disease burden of tuberculosis and improve public health in developing countries include:

• Training programs for health workers
• Research centers focused on neglected tropical diseases and optimizing treatments for developing countries (such as the Infectious Disease Research Institute)
• Drug donation programs

The following update on the election of a new EU executive and it’s impact is provided by the European Public Health Alliance.

With the announcement of ’Barrosso II’, all that remains between a new political leadership in Brussels is the Parliamentary hearings. The designated Commissioners are busy preparing for the scrutiny before the European Parliament, a gruelling three hour process where questions are mooted on potentially any topic within their portfolio. This is not the simple ’rubber stamp’ procedure that it may appear : Commissioners are expected to understand the details of the political and technical dossiers and prepare for the most challenging and divisive questions. The new Health and Consumer Commissioner, John Dalli, is in for a particular challenge. Always a broad portfolio, the inclusion of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, cosmetics and genetically modified organisms gives not only far more technical and complex dossiers but also those with heavy economic interests and strong positions. All will be watching the hearings, in order to get a sense of the leadership for the next five years.

Meanwhile, Brussels waits. The political dossiers are on hold : big consultations on issues of key interest and impact are waiting for the political leadership to take the helm. The EU2020 consultation, on the future business plan of Europe, is however underway, with a deadline of 15 January. This short consultation, for what is the second most important document in terms of decision-making after the Treaty, coinciding with the Christmas holidays is causing many in Brussels to call in protest at the challenges this brings for a full and transparent debate of the issues.

The Council of the European Union (EU) has announced an agreement on long-awaited plans for a single EU Patent and a new European patent court.  The EU Patent will involve partnerships between European patent offices, which will bring about more rapid delivery of patents and increase speed of access to market for innovative products and services.

The proposed EU Patent will make it less costly for businesses to protect innovative technology and make litigation more accessible and predictable, says the EU Commission.

Around a million people die of malaria each year, most of them in Africa.  Economic losses from the disease amount to an estimated one percent of the African economy each year.  According to a report from VOA news, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland are studying how mosquitoes could be used to prevent malaria.

Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium. The organism is injected into people through the bite of infected mosquitoes. Malaria can be treated, but in many areas the parasites have become resistant to different drugs.

There are hundreds of kinds of mosquitoes in the world and most do not spread malaria. Some even have immune systems that kill Plasmodium.

The researchers at Johns Hopkins have developed a way to make genetic changes in the three mosquito species known to spread malaria. The changes cause their systems to attack the parasite, blocking its development. Other researchers are working on ways to spread these genetically modified insects among mosquito populations.

97 new products for the prevention or treatment of HIV/AIDS and related conditions are currently in human clinical trials, or awaiting approval by the FDA, according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.  These products in development include 23 vaccines and 54 antivirals.

While not all these products will be approved, it’s more encouraging news in the fight against HIV/AIDS following from yesterday’s announcement by UNAIDS of a global decline in HIV infection rates (UNAIDS report: 33.4 million worldwide have HIV, but infections slow).  UNAIDS estimates that new HIV infections worldwide have been reduced by 17% over the past eight years.

Since the introduction of anti-retroviral therapy in 1995, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the annual number of deaths in the US due to AIDS has dropped by more than 70%.

A newly released United Nations report on HIV  says that while the disease has killed 25 million people worldwide, the rate of new infections is slowing sharply.  The UNAIDS agency report says the number of newly infected grew by 2.7 million in 2008,  bringing the world total to 33.4 million.

In sub-Saharan Africa,  where the scourge of AIDS is most keenly felt,  there were 400,000 fewer new infections last year, down 15 percent when compared to figures from 2001.

During the same time period,  new HIV infections in East Asia declined by 25 percent and by 10 percent in south and southeast Asia.

The report says the availability of life-saving HIV drugs is helping more people live longer.

An interesting article from the Financial Express, based in India, on counterfeit medicines and how they are being marketed.

Barely four months after China-made fake drugs with deceptive ‘Made in India’ labels were seized in Nigeria, more cases of spurious drugs are surfacing in the Indian market with alleged links to China.

Recently, seized samples of human immunoglobin injection used in the case of multiple sclerosis, bone marrow transplantation, chronic B-cell lymphocytic leukemia, pediatric HIV-1 infection among others, which were declared spurious by the drug regulator office in Rajasthan were allegedly manufactured by a Chinese company.

Earlier in June this year, the Nigerian drug regulator seized large consignments of fake anti-malarial generic pharmaceuticals labelled `Made in India’, which were later, found to be produced in China.

Nearly 12 million Africans deemed at highest risk from yellow fever will be vaccinated next week against the virus, which can cause explosive epidemics in cities.

Vaccination is the best way to prevent yellow fever, which is hard to diagnose in early stages and for which there is no specific treatment, according to the United Nations agency.  Yellow fever infects 206,000 people a year and kills an estimated 30,000, mainly in tropical parts of Africa and the Americas where it has never been wiped out.

In contrast, a survey of Canadians shows that despite efforts to make vaccines available, nearly half won’t bother to get the H1N1 shot.  Similar results are reported from surveys in the U.S.

A third of deaths in children under five in those countries are linked to poor diet, a report by UNICEF suggests. It also reveals 195m children – one in three – have stunted growth, even though rates have fallen since 1990.  UNICEF said the number of underweight children also remained high, with many countries struggling to hit official targets to halve the figures.

Experts warn that such a condition is often irreversible and effectively condemns children to a lifetime of poor health.  UNICEF chief Ann Veneman said: “Undernutrition steals a child’s strength and makes illnesses that the body might otherwise fight off far more dangerous.

UNICEF said that together with its partners, which include governments and international aid agencies, it was making progress to improve nutrition for children in the 150 countries it was working in.  Nonetheless, just 63 out of 117 countries look like they will meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the rates of underweight children between 1990 and 2015.