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The October 2020 Global TB report reviews TB control strategies and United Nations (UN) targets set in the political declaration at the September 2018 UN General Assembly high-level meeting on TB held in New York. Progress in TB care and prevention has been very slow. In 2019, TB remained the most common cause of death from a single infectious pathogen. Globally, an estimated 10.0 million people developed TB disease in 2019, and there were an estimated 1.2 million TB deaths among HIV-negative people and an additional 208, 000 deaths among people living with HIV. Adults accounted for 88% and children for 12% of people with TB. The WHO regions of South-East Asia (44%), Africa (25%), and the Western Pacific (18%) had the most people with TB. Eight countries accounted for two thirds of the global total: India (26%), Indonesia (8.5%), China (8.4%), the Philippines (6.0%), Pakistan (5.7%), Nigeria (4.4%), Bangladesh (3.6%) and South Africa (3.6%). Only 30% of the 3.5 million five-year target for children treated for TB was met. Major advances have been development of new all oral regimens for MDRTB and new regimens for preventive therapy. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic dislodged TB from the top infectious disease cause of mortality globally. Notably, global TB control efforts were not on track even before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many challenges remain to improve sub-optimal TB treatment and prevention services. Tuberculosis screening and diagnostic test services need to be ramped up. The major drivers of TB remain undernutrition, poverty, diabetes, tobacco smoking, and household air pollution and these need be addressed to achieve the WHO 2035 TB care and prevention targets. National programs need to include interventions for post-tuberculosis holistic wellbeing. From first detection of COVID-19 global coordination and political will with huge financial investments have led to the development of effective vaccines against SARS-CoV2 infection. The world now needs to similarly focus on development of new vaccines for TB utilizing new technological methods.

Generalist and specialist species differ in the breadth of their ecological niche. Little is known about the niche width of obligate human pathogens. Here we analyzed a global collection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Lineage 4 clinical isolates, the most geographically widespread cause of human tuberculosis. We show that Lineage 4 comprises globally distributed and geographically restricted sublineages, suggesting a distinction between generalists and specialists. Population genomic analyses showed that while the majority of human T cell epitopes were conserved in all sublineages, the proportion of variable epitopes was higher in generalists. Our data further support a European origin for the most common generalist sublineage. Hence, the global success of Lineage 4 reflects distinct strategies adopted by different sublineages and the influence of human migration.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains the top killer from an infectious globally causing an estimated 1.674.000 million deaths worldwide. In 2016, WHO estimates 600.000 cases of rifampicin-resistant TB of which 490.000 had multidrug-resistant (MDR) and less than half of them survive after receiving currently recommended WHO treatment regimens, illustrating weaknesses in current treatment approaches. We review progress and advances in the development of new and repurposed TB drugs, treatment trials and host-directed therapies. Updates are provided on phase 3 trials of the new compounds bedaquiline, delamanid, pretomanid; phase 2 trials of sutezolid, SQ-109, LCB01-0371, PBTZ-169; and five new drugs in phase 1 development. Approved or repurposed drugs undergoing further testing are rifampicin, rifapentine, clofazimine, and linezolid. Update on ongoing clinical trials, which aim to shorten TB treatment and improve treatment outcome is given. Several new or repurposed antimicrobial drugs are in advanced trial stages for MDR-TB, and five antimicrobial drug candidates are in phase 1 (Q203, TBI-166, OPC-167832, GSK 070, TBA-7371) and 5 in pre-clinical studies. Specific issues of safety and toxicity; drug-drug interactions; Therapeutic Drug Monitoring are reviewed. A wide range of candidate host-directed therapies (HDTs) and immune-based treatments are being investigated to accelerate the eradication of M.tb infection and for use as adjunctive therapy in shortening duration of treatment, preventing permanent lung injury and improving treatment outcomes of MDR-TB. Ongoing clinical trials of HDTs for TB treatment, the current HDT development pipeline and translational research efforts for advancing further HDT options are presented. Ongoing clinical trials of HDTs for TB treatment, the current HDT development pipeline and translational research efforts for advancing further HDT options are presented.5

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While some genetic host factors are known to protect against severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria, little is known about parasite virulence factors. We have compared the genetic characteristics of P. falciparum isolates collected from 56 severe malaria patients and from 30 mild malaria patients recruited in Hôpital Principal, Dakar, Senegal. All isolates were typed using polymerase chain reaction amplification of polymorphic genetic loci (MSP-1, MSP-2, HRP1, GLURP, CSP, RESA, and the multigene family Pf60). The complexity of infections was lower in severe than in mild malaria and the parasite genetic diversity in both groups was very large. No specific genetic make-up was associated with severity; there were, however, marked differences in allele frequencies in both groups, with a prevalence up to 60% of MSP-2 alleles specifically observed in the severe malaria isolates. In addition, the presence of MSP-1/RO33 alleles was significantly associated with a higher plasma level of tumour necrosis factor alpha receptor 1 (P < 0.05), a reported indicator of severity in human malaria. These results point to potential differences in the genetic characteristics of parasites inducing severe versus mild pathology.