The 2011 International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) conference in Addis Ababa was an experience in contradictions. Presentations about promising new strategies created by scientific breakthroughs, and successful field experiences, even in some of Africa’s most disadvantaged communities, contrasted with growing fears that this optimism rests on empty promises and that […]
Category: MSF
Beverly Collin: Being bold on a budget at Lille
After the initial orientation to the vast Union World Conference on Lung Health (Lille, France), I settled into a series of thought provoking sessions and symposia. There were big concerns linked to the current global economic crisis and the flatlining of funds for tuberculosis from international donors at at least two of the sessions I attended. […]
Grania Brigden: Paediatric tuberculosis: out of the dark
Children with tuberculosis have been neglected for too long. Children tend to have paucibacillary disease and therefore are less infectious than adults, meaning they have not been prioritised by the WHO global tuberculosis control strategy. This neglect has resulted in many problems. Firstly, there has been no impetus for governments to prioritise paediatric programmes. Secondly, diagnostics […]
Rachel ter Horst: Inspiring progress in the fight against sleeping sickness
Bamako, Mali. Leopard print chairs, a rather dark conference room filled mainly with African men dressed in either dark suits or colourful long boubous, with some women and westerners here and there. The 31st biennial International Scientific Council for Trypanosomiasis Research and Control (ISCTRC) was about to start. On the menu: progress towards elimination of […]
Grania Brigden: Capreomycin shortage – symptom of a bigger problem in multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
Of the 9.4 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases diagnosed each year, approximately 5% are multidrug resistant (MDR). MDR-TB treatment is demanding for patients, requiring a complex treatment course lasting 18–24 months, and using a minimum of five different antibiotics that often add up to more than 20 tablets a day. […]
Philipp du Cros: The personal experiences of patients living with MDR-TB
What goes through a person’s mind when they are told they have multidrug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) and face at least eight months of injections and nearly two years of medication? What are they thinking when they find out that the drugs they have to take will make them feel sick, and the side effects they […]
Nathan Ford: Improving treatment for severe malaria
Major advances in drug therapy are rare, particularly in the neglected field of tropical diseases. So it was quite appropriate that when the results of the largest trial ever done on severe malaria were presented in Atlanta last November, they were met with cheers from the crowd. The trial, which found a clear mortality reduction […]
Rebecca Welfare on World TB Day: dilemmas in tuberculosis treatment
The weekly multidisciplinary committee on drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) had assembled to discuss the case of a young man who had started treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) 12 months previously. […]
Nathan Ford: Flying in the face of evidence
Despite having its critics, most clinicians agree that evidence-based medicine is, on the whole, a good thing. But evidence is just one part of what drives policy, and this is nowhere more obvious than in the field of international assistance for HIV/AIDS. […]
Manica Balasegaram: New treatment options for the control of visceral leishmaniasis
A recent report by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) of an outbreak of visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in southern Sudan comes at a time when increasing focus is being put on the control and elimination of neglected diseases. However, this outbreak raises questions of how far along we really are in reaching such targets. […]