tuberculosis

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February 27, 2013 | 12:00 PM | By  | 

From Zambia to America, a plea to continue the global fight against AIDS, TB and malaria | 

Luwiza Makukula
Luwiza Makukula

It’s hard to imagine Luwiza Makukula of a dozen or so years ago.

“Things were very difficult in Zambia then,” said Makukula, a soft-spoken and elegantly dressed grandmother of two I met briefly during a visit to Seattle this week. Her visit was sponsored by the anti-poverty organization RESULTS, a group which the Seattle Times’ columnist Danny Westneat once described as “the most influential anti-poverty group you’ve never heard of.” One of the reasons for this is the way RESULTS has operated for some 30 years – quietly, persistently and face-to-face.

That’s why Makukula came here from Zambia to tell her story.

“I lost my husband to HIV in 2001,” she said. “We didn’t know but after he died I started getting sick with fevers, in and out of the hospital.”

Makukula was eventually diagnosed with TB, and then found to also be HIV-positive. By then, she was in a wheelchair, suffering from exhaustion and cognitive lapses. They put her in an isolation ward that she said “felt like jail.” The drugs she needed to stay alive cost about $200 a month, in a country which at the time had an annual per capita income of about $1000.

She wasn’t alone in her deadly predicament. At the time, HIV and TB were burning a wide swath across much of southern Africa. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, AIDS, Bob Dickerson, Global Fund, Joanne Carter, Luwiza Makukula, RESULTS, tuberculosis, Zambia
February 4, 2013 | 11:53 AM | By  | 

TB vaccine study dissapoints | 

tuberculosis patient, El Salvador
tuberculosis patient, El Salvador

As a Reuters article from last week indicated, there were high hopes the results from a study of an experimental TB vaccine would show promise.

“In my own personal view, I will consider this (trial) to be a landmark or a watershed,” said Peggy Johnston, senior program officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. “If it is negative, it would be the first trial we can demonstrate that yes, we can conduct a clinical trial and get a solid answer. If it turns out to be at all positive, it will be a clear watershed for the field.”

Unfortunately, the study did not yield a positive result, at least in the latter sense.  TB, though seldom in the news like HIV or malaria (or the threat of pandemic flu), remains one of the world’s biggest killers and the bacteria is becoming increasingly drug -resistant. As a number of news articles reported on this latest attempt to find a better vaccine:

BBC and the Guardian both reported ‘Hopes for new TB vaccine dashed‘

NPR sounded a more hopeful note, saying that though this vaccine failed to protect infants there are lots of other candidate vaccines under study.

FILED UNDER: Science, tuberculosis, vaccine
February 3, 2012 | 10:41 AM | By  | 

Highest levels ever of drug-resistant TB found, in Europe | 

Tom Paulson

tuberculosis patient, El Salvador

People are always surprised by this one basic fact about tuberculosis: One out of every three people on the planet are currently infected with this airborne bacterium.

That’s why the problem of increasing outbreaks of drug-resistant strains of TB is so worrisome to health officials. Tuberculosis spreads a lot easier than many other diseases globally and we are losing our ability to fight it.

Perhaps equally surprising to some will be the new reports that the highest rates ever recorded of multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) are not in Africa or the developing world but in Eastern Europe — Russia and Moldova. Sarah Boseley in The Guardian writes:

It shows the highest-ever recorded levels of MDR-TB. In some countries, 65% of patients who have previously been treated for TB end up back in hospital with a drug-resistant strain. The clear message is that their TB was not sufficiently well treated the first time around.

Of all the big killers out there on the global health landscape, TB has always been one of the biggest. But it seldom gets anywhere near the same attention as HIV, malaria or even less deadly threats (in terms of mortality numbers) such as, say, maternal mortality or malnutrition.

This stunning finding, that E. Europe is home to the highest rates of drug-resistant TB ever found, is getting some attention, but not much.

FILED UNDER: Health, drug resistance, Europe, tuberculosis, World Health Organization
January 31, 2012 | 10:47 AM | By  | 

Seattle’s Party with a Purpose is on again, as ‘Agency’ | 

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Global health is sexy.

At least in Seattle. The best evidence of this perhaps has been the annual Party with a Purpose, a celebration sponsored by the Washington Global Health Alliance and lavishly funded by donors like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Boeing and others. This year, the party’s name is changing to Agency.

Why? Here’s what the artists formerly known as Partying Purposefully say:

“Agency means taking action on behalf of others. Agency is founded in the belief that focusing the power of young adults for the betterment of a single global health cause, even just for one night, can lead to world-changing progress.”

Aimed primarily at the younger set, the idea behind this event is to combine a spectacular, posh night out with educational and fund-raising activities devoted to a particular issue in global health. Organizers bravely launched the event with a focus on diarrhea and last year took up tuberculosis.

This year, the party is July 14 and they will focus on a University of Washington organization, Health Alliance International, working with mobile phones to improve maternal and child health.

Here’s a video pitch from lead organizer Kristen Eddings:

Announcing Agency from WGHA on Vimeo.

Note: Some have raised questions about the actual impact of these celebrations, if not the conflicting message they send — as I noted to much consternation last year. Hey, don’t shoot the messenger!

What I can say in defense of the idea of partying about diseases of poverty is it’s a heck of a lot better than ignoring these issues.

So party on!

A word to the wise: These events have sold out both times so if you want to go, better get your tickets as soon as they go on sale. I’m told it will be sometime in April.

FILED UNDER: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Boeing, diarrhea, maternal health, Party with a Purpose, tuberculosis, Washington Global Health Alliance
November 8, 2011 | 10:25 AM | By  | 

Electronic nose “smells” TB, competes with rats | 

An odd-sounding scientific experiment — a battery-powered “electronic nose” –  has been awarded a $950,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Grand Challenges Canada.

The grant, which was announced on Monday at the annual Grand Challenges Meeting in Delhi, India, was one of nine previously selected projects to receive up to $1 million in additional funding.

In addition to development, the new grant will be used to test how effectively the hand-held e-nose can diagnose TB from a patient’s breath. “Just like the police can take the roadside breathalyser test right to your car window, this device could take the diagnosis of TB right to the door of the hut in your village,” Peter Singer, the CEO of Grand Challenges Canada, told AlertNet.

Flickr, CarbonNYC

Why we need a new test

Standard TB diagnostic tools need to be used in a lab setting, which can pose barriers for people in resource-poor areas where TB is more common. Though there was much excitement about the World Health Organization-approved Gene Xpert TB diagnostic test last year, the test has faced implementation problems. One concern is that the Gene Xpert cannot be used at the point-of-care. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, electronic nose, Grand Challenges, tuberculosis
August 5, 2011 | 10:00 AM | By  | 

Gates Foundation TB chief demotes himself, heads to India | 

Gates Foundation

Peter Small in India

Peter Small wanted to get back on the front lines.

Small, who qualifies as one of the old-timers at the Gates Foundation having started there in 2002, has stepped down as head of the tuberculosis program at the philanthropy and moved — with his two young children and wife — to New Delhi to help fight one of the world’s biggest, and somewhat neglected, killers.

“I wanted to be there on the ground, engaging with the people who are doing the hard work,” said Small.

Tuberculosis kills nearly two million people every year. One of every three people on the planet are infected with the bacterium. And the potentially deadly bug is becoming increasingly resistant to drugs.

It’s a modern plague fought with an inaccurate diagnostic test developed before cars were invented, a frequently ineffective vaccine created during the (last) Great Depression and 50-year-old drugs. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, India, Peter Small, tuberculosis
June 18, 2011 | 6:48 PM | By  | 

Partying with a purpose, looking for an impact | 

Tom Paulson

Partying with a Purpose

More than a thousand young (along with a few not-so-young) Seattleites got together Friday to eat, drink, dance, schmooze and Party with a Purpose.

Seattle’s second annual Party with a Purpose was at McCaw Hall, a sold-out affair put on by the Washington Global Health Alliance. The event is intended to raise awareness of a number of efforts by local global health organizations and assist in the fight against diseases of poverty around the world — this year focused on tuberculosis.

“We have a global health movement among young people in Seattle,” said Kristen Eddings, lead organizer of the event for WGHA. “A party can’t change the world … But it can support and seed the change.”

Can it? Can throwing a glam party really help fight poverty and disease in poor countries?

At a basic level, that of raising money, it did already. The event raised funds (about $35,000) to assist the Seattle-based Infectious Disease Research Institute in developing new methods aimed at fighting one of the world’s biggest killers – tuberculosis. This is substantially less than the party cost, but sponsors like the Gates Foundation, Glassybaby, Sightlife, the Seattle Center and others paid for that.

At the broader level of supporting a movement, does throwing a party actually raise awareness and increase understanding of critical issues in global health, the other aim of this event?

That’s not clear. It certainly shows that, in Seattle at least, global health is now popular and maybe even sexy. But whether or not this translates into truly understanding what global health is all about is hard to assess.

“We’re going to do a post-party survey to try to evaluate that,” said Becky Bartlein, one of the organizers of the event. Bartlein, a recent UW global health graduate and former Peace Corps volunteer who works on drug access in poor countries, is coordinating a post-party survey aimed at finding out and “keeping the party going.”

I did my own survey of participants — when I wasn’t dancing the “silent disco” or getting berated for misunderstanding what the party invitation meant by “cocktail attire” — and found a mixed reaction among the partygoers.

Tom Paulson

Silent disco fever

Everyone had a good time, and for some that was enough. I talked to quite a few people who thought the event was mostly a celebration of the local biomedical and biotech industry. Others who work on poverty and disease in poor countries said they were concerned that such a posh party sent a confused message — celebrating the kind of rich world extravagance that actually contributes to global poverty and inequity.

I put these concerns to Eddings, Bartlein and other co-organizers of the event (who all seem to be beautiful young women, for some reason).

“There’s more than one way to fight poverty,” Eddings said. Many of those who attend the party might not go to a lecture or watch a documentary about the fight against AIDS, TB or malaria in Africa, she said. “We can’t always be trying to ‘guilt’ people into caring or getting involved.”

Bartlein, who worked in Senegal with the Peace Corps, said partying is a universal method for building purpose.

“When I worked in these poor communities, a party was always one of the best ways to bring people together,” she said. “Do we really think poor people would fault us for having a good time while also drawing attention to their needs? Celebrating is how humans connect to each other.”

slideshow

FILED UNDER: Becky Bartlein, Infectious Disease Research Institute, Kristen Eddings, Party with a Purpose, tuberculosis, Washington Global Health Alliance
June 14, 2011 | 1:22 PM | By  | 

Party with a Purpose almost sold out! | 

Okay, you don’t have much more time.

Party with a Purpose is almost sold out. This Friday’s event, sponsored by the Washington Global Health Alliance, is aimed at bringing together mostly young people (and some old people like me) to eat, drink, be merry and focus on a particular global health issue.

Tom Paulson

Last year's Party with a (Poop) Purchase

Last year, they boldly based their social event on diarrhea; this year, it’s tuberculosis and the work of Seattle’s Infectious Disease Research Institute.

It’s more evidence of what I contend is a Millennials’ do-gooder revolution.

“This year’s event will be much more geared toward providing people with opportunities to engage,” said Kristen Eddings, lead organizer of the event for the WGHA. For example, Eddings said, the event will educate attendees about the Global Health Corps and encourage them to apply.

But the event isn’t limited only to those looking for a career in global health, she said. The idea is to provide an entertaining opportunity for anyone to simply come learn more about these issues, find causes to support or get involved as a volunteer. The focus this year is on bringing more public attention to a local effort that few seem aware of, the work done on TB by the Infectious Disease Research Institute.

“We’ve been lousy about getting our story out,” said Curt Malloy, senior vp at IDRI. The research organization, founded in 1993, explores novel approaches to vaccines and therapeutics.

Last fall, as reported by the Seattle Times, IDRI announced plans to begin clinical testing on a new TB vaccine — aimed at boosting the efficacy of the current vaccine. The Seattle firm also recently started testing a vaccine against leischmaniasis in the Sudan and is working on developing faster, cheaper TB diagnostic tests.

Party with a Purpose will also raise money to support IDRI’s research. It may not be enough to fund a vaccine trial. But that’s okay; the sponsors like the Gates Foundation, Sightlife, Vulcan and others are picking up the cost of the shindig so all the proceeds go to assist with IDRI’s work and every little bit helps.

The idea is to increase awareness of what’s going on in Seattle and why we’re now a global health epicenter.

FILED UNDER: Infectious Disease Research Institute, Millennials, Party with a Purpose, tuberculosis, Washington Global Health Alliance