At its recent meeting on Round III grants, the Three Diseases Fund (3DF) awarded The Union’s HIV Treatment (HIT) Programme in Myanmar US $ 1,045,000 to put an additional 2,790 patients on antiretroviral therapy by the end of June 2011.The HIT Programme builds on The Union’s successful IHC Programme in Myanmar.

An article in January’s International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IJTLD) describes a strain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis that thrives in the presence of rifampicin identified in a patient in China. Dr Ying Zhang, senior author of the study, calls rifampicin-dependent TB an “unrecognised and potentially serious treatment issue”.

The Union is helping the Government of Bangladesh, a coalition of more than 300 non-governmental organisations and other groups to work together to implement its 2005 national tobacco control law. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) released in Dhaka, Bangladesh on 22 December 2009 provides valuable data about tobacco use in Bangladesh and how the campaign for tobacco control is progressing.

President of The Union Dr S Bertel Squire of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (UK) and the other members of the bureau were re-elected for a new term at the meeting of The Union Board of Directors in Cancún, Mexico on 6-7 December 2009. Several new members were also elected. New members representing the regions are Dr Jesus Felipe Gonzalez Roldan of Mexico (Latin America); Prof Mohamed Awad Tag Eldin of Egypt (Middle East); Dr Masae Kawamura of the USA (North America) and Prof CH Muhammad Nawaz of Pakistan (South-East Asia). New members representing the Scientific Sections are Prof Digambar Behera of India (Tuberculosis); Dr Reuben Granich of Switzerland (HIV) and Prof Hamdy El Sayed of Egypt (Tobacco). For a complete list of new and continuing Board Members, read more.

Since 2005, governments representing 86% of the world’s population have ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the global public health treaty. Yet, according to a report released today by the World Health Organization, nearly five years later less than 10% of the world’s population is covered by any one of the six WHO MPOWER measures to reduce tobacco use.