We’d like to draw attention to events at several upcoming conferences, and to remind you that registration for the 43rd Union World Conference on Lung Health is now open.;

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A new practical guide for healthcare workers and HIV and tuberculosis (TB) programmes on how to implement TB-HIV collaborative activities (health services that reduce the burden of either TB or HIV, and sometimes both diseases, as well as the activities required to support those services) has just been released by the the Union (the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease).;

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One of the ‘discussions in the corridors’ at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Lille in October last year, was about the ethics of a study known as ‘ACTG 5274’ or the ‘REMEMBER’ trial. REMEMBER stands for ‘Reducing Early Mortality and Early Morbidity by Empiric Tuberculosis (TB) Treatment Regimens’. Giving someone ‘empiric’ treatment means treating them for something they might have, before it has been confirmed. The study was described in this blog a couple of months ago – it is recruiting people with HIV who present late for care (e.g. are diagnosed with a CD4 cell count below 50). In the study, people are randomly assigned to one of two groups:Empiric TB treatment followed by antiretroviral therapy (ART), on the presumption they may have potentially life-threatening but hard-to-diagnose TB.Immediate ART, and potentially TB treatment if they get a TB diagnosis (standard of care).;

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Funding opportunity for proposals to increase access to TB, HIV and malaria medicines, treatment and diagnostics in low and middle-income countries — deadline 22 May 2012;

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Any setting where there is a significant burden of drug resistant TB would do well to adopt the key steps being taken in Mumbai.;

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