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36.7 million The number of people with HIV worldwide. This figure is up from 36.1 million in 2015, largely because of the success in transforming the virus from a death sentence into a manageable illness. 19.5 million The number of people on anti-retroviral drugs used to suppress the HIV virus. The figure, up from 17.1 million in 2015, represents 53% of those infected. 1 million The number of AIDS-related deaths last year. This figure is down from 1.9 million in 2005, a 47% decline. 1.8 million The number of new HIV infections last year. That figure is down 16% since...

For the first time ever, the World Health Organization has drawn up a list of the highest priority needs for new antibiotics — marching orders, it hopes, for the pharmaceutical industry. The list, which was released Monday, enumerates 12 bacterial threats, grouping them into three categories: critical, high, and medium. “Antibiotic resistance is growing and we are running out of treatment options. If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time,” said Dr. Marie-Paule Kieny, the WHO’s assistant director-general for health systems and innovation. “The pipeline...

Full title : Ingham County, Michigan: One Refugee Diagnosed With Multi-Drug Resistant TB; 22 Percent Have Latent TB. One of the 3,554 refugees resettled in Ingham County, Michigan (Lansing) during the six years beginning October 1, 2010 and ending on September 30, 2016 (FY 2011 to FY 2016) has been diagnosed with multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis (TB), the Ingham County Health Department tells Breitbart News. MDR TB is a very dangerous and expensive to treat type of TB that is a growing world wide problem and has recently become a public health issue in the United States as well. In...

About a thousand people still contract tuberculosis daily in Europe and Central Asia, despite an overall decline of the disease, a report by the Europe Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) revealed Tuesday (17 March). The report, co-authored with the World Health Organization (WHO), said the continent would not be free of the disease until the next century at the current low rate of eradication, particularly due to prevalence in countries to the east of the region. “Multi-resistance tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is still ravaging the European region, making it the most affected area of the entire world,” Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO...

A potentially dangerous sexually transmitted disease that infects millions of people each year is growing resistant to drugs and could soon become untreatable, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. The United Nations' health agency is urging governments and doctors to step up surveillance of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, a bacterial infection that can cause inflammation, infertility, pregnancy complications and, in extreme cases, lead to maternal death. Babies born to mothers with gonorrhea have a 50 percent chance of developing eye infections that can result in blindness. "This organism has basically been developing resistance against every medication we've thrown at it," said Dr....

Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Found In Four Million-Year-Old CaveThe bacteria, found in the isolated Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico, over 1300 feet below the earth, may hold the secret to understanding drug resistance. Alexander BesantApril 12, 2012 17:19 Researchers said they discovered ancient bacteria resistant to both natural and synthetic antibiotics while investigating a 4-million-year-old cave in New Mexico. The finding, may have implications for both the understanding of drug resistance and ways of preventing it. The scientists involved collected 93 strains of bacteria from Lechuguilla cave, approximately 1300 feet deep, and found that all the strains collected were resistant to...

N.Korea Struggling to Fight Epidemic of Drug-Resistant TB North Korea is grappling with a strain of the deadly lung disease tuberculosis that is resistant to conventional treatment. Humanitarian workers say the impoverished communist country, which already has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis outside of sub-Saharan Africa, is unable to cope with the outbreak. Most victims could die of the disease within years. But some help is coming from an outside foundation. â—† TB, Resistant to Treatment The disease is known as multi-drug resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. It resists treatment by the two most powerful front-line TB drugs. Stephen Linton,...

Authorities in Spain launched Sunday an investigation into the deaths of at least 18 people in a reported bacteria epidemic at one of Madrid's main hospitals. Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega, who was on an official visit to Niger, announced a probe into what she described as "a very, very serious incident" at the 12th October University Hospital. El Pais reported that at least 18 people had died in a bacteria epidemic that infected more than 250 patients over a period of 20 months at the hospital. The deaths were caused by Acinetobacter baumannii, a highly...

Cutting the length of time that patients take certain antibiotics could help to tackle the rise in drug resistance. So say the authors of a study showing that just three days' worth of drugs can fight pneumonia just as well as a longer treatment. Many antibiotics are prescribed for a week, ten days, or more, and patients are usually told to finish the course of pills to ensure that all the infection-causing bugs are eradicated. It is widely thought that not finishing the full course of drugs may allow a few of the hardiest bugs to linger, raising the risk...