CNS: research

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When the last-resort antibiotic fails

A 20-hospital, 3-year ICMR study of over 150,000 patients finds that carbapenem drug-resistant infections are driving up both deaths and treatment costs

A large multi-centre study of over 150,000 patients in India's 20 tertiary-care hospitals has put a stark number on one of the top ten global health threats today: Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR). AMR happens when infections easier to treat earlier become difficult (or impossible) to treat due to disease-causing microbe (such as bacteria, virus, fungi, parasite) becoming drug resistant.

Watch CNS Live with Patricia Ongpin of UNAIDS

After Thailand, Cambodia becomes the second Asian country to rollout long-acting and injectable options to protect oneself from getting infected with HIV. United Nations health agency (formally known as World Health Organization or WHO) had first issued its guidelines in 2022, asking countries to deliver long-acting injectable Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP), using cabotegravir medicine, as part of comprehensive approach to HIV prevention.

(L to R) Dr Ishwar Gilada, Dr Jurgen Rockstroh, Gujarat CM B Patel

Treatment for people living with HIV (antiretroviral therapy) is lifesaving and revolutionary as it has made HIV akin to any other chronic disease. It has been proven that those who are on treatment and remain virally suppressed, live healthy and normal lifespans - comparable to those without the virus – and there is zero risk of any further HIV transmission from them.

[watch the video interview] Any new HIV prevention method is not meant to sit on the shelf but to be used by the people who need it to protect themselves from HIV. We have to ensure that new HIV prevention technologies that are coming out of the scientific research pipelines, are accessible to people everywhere - especially those who are more at risk of HIV acquisition. Jim Pickett has passionately called for translating scientific gains into public health outcomes - not with delay, but with equity and justice.

[watch the video] Imagine failing 1.3 million times in a year: Failure to ensure that everyone has access to prevention options to protect oneself from HIV acquisition, has resulted in at least 1.3 million new HIV infections in 2023. The pace of progress towards ending AIDS is out of step if we are to end AIDS by 2030.

Choices for women and girls for HIV prevention: So near and yet so far

Longstanding gender inequalities, discrimination and poverty deny many women and girls bodily and economic autonomy - which deprives them of control over their sexual health, and increase the risk of preventable infections like HIV. Women and girls are still disproportionately affected with HIV.

The reality is a mix of YES and NO. While the facts and figures shared in the latest report by UNAIDS reveal that as a world we are NOT already on the path, they do show that we CAN be there if world leaders take bold actions ensuring that the HIV response has the resources it needs and that the human rights of everyone are protected.

Retention in HIV care has declined since 'Treat All' guidelines introduced

Introduction of guidelines did not result in any improvement in annual viral load monitoring and suppression among people retained in care

Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant

published in aidsmap (UK)

[video] Find all TB → treat all TB → prevent all TB → End TB | Science-based photo story

[podcast] TB science simplified

TB Science Simplified podcast: Prof Urvashi B Singh explains TB diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Prof Urvashi is in-charge of Tuberculosis Division, and Professor, Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi (AIIMS Delhi) is speaking in End TB Dialogues. She is also the Co-Chair of Diagnostic Committee, National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP, Government of India, and member of Diagnostic Committee, India TB Research Consortium, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and ICMR Task Force on Genital Tuberculosis. Prof Singh is in conversation with CNS Founder, Managing Editor and Executive Director Shobha Shukla.

Listen to this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Google Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Podtail, BluBrry, Himalaya, ListenNotes, American Podcasts, CastBox FM, Ivy FM, Player FM, iVoox, and other podcast streaming platforms.

5000 vertical HIV transmissions in India in 2021

States need tailored interventions to eliminate vertical transmission

Written by: Shobha Shukla, Bobby Ramakant

Edited by: Dr Trupti Gilada (CNS Medical Editor HIV & TB science)

published in aidsmap on 19 February 2024

published in aidsmap on 19 February 2024

Why are shorter, safer and more effective treatments for drug-resistant TB not reaching everyone in need?

Is it not a paradox that a preventable, diagnosable, treatable, and curable bacterial infection disease is still 1.30 million people every year. Yes we are talking of TB. Today we have all the solutions to #EndTB - point-of-care molecular tests to diagnose drug sensitive and drug-resistant TB upfront within an hour or so, and begin patient-friendly shorter treatment regimens ("same day test and treat") to get rid of this dreaded disease. And yet in 2022, an estimated 10.6 million people developed TB globally, out of which 410,000 cases were of drug-resistant TB. Moreover only less than half of those with drug-resistant TB (43%) were able to access treatment.

[podcast] Georgia's journey of reducing TB and drug-resistant TB rates

This podcast features Dr Nino Lomtadze, Head of Surveillance and Strategic Planning Department at Georgia's National TB Programme. Georgia was among the high MDR-TB burden countries till 2016 after which TB rates (including those of drug-resistant forms) have been dropping. TB decline has been 6-7% in recent years. TB surveillance and use of latest TB diagnostics and treatments have resulted in reduction in TB rates in Georgia.

This year’s World TB Day theme is #WeCanEndTB. However, many nations in the global north were successful in eliminating TB as a public health threat many decades back.

When TB bacteria becomes resistant to most effective anti-TB medicines, then it no longer responds to them. As a result, drug-resistant TB becomes harder to treat, treatment is longer and outcomes are not satisfactory, and toxicity and side effects are deeply worrying. That is why new TB drug research and development is so critical as we need more effective and shorter therapies with no toxicities and side effects. One major news of better therapies for drug-resistant TB was shared at the opening of the world's largest conference on TB and lung health.

[watch video interview | listen to podcast | हिंदी] Recently, results of a phase-3 study of a potentially game-changing TB treatment therapy were announced that give us enormous hope that shorter, all-oral (no injectables), more effective and less toxic treatments will reach those in-need globally without any delay.