Welcome to the website of the New Diagnostics Working Group
The New Diagnostics Working Group is a one of the seven Working Groups of the Stop TB Partnership. It aims at supporting the Partnership in its goal of elimination of TB, in particular by promoting the development and evaluation of new diagnostic tools.
The New Diagnostics Working Group is a network of experts representing stakeholders from academia, government, industry, NGOs and the patient community.
News
NDWG to host a symposium at ESM Congress 2013
The Annual Congress of the European Society of Mycobacteriology will be held in Florence, Italy, from 30 June - 3 July 2013.
The NDWG will be hosting a symposium on Monday 1st July 2013 from 16:15 - 17:15. The session will focus on the role of next-generation sequencing for patient care and will include the following presentations:
- Rapid whole genome sequencing as a tool to manage MDR/XDR-TB patients, Prof. Philip D Butcher, St George's University of London
- Lessons on drug resistance from WGS of one thousand clinical isolates, Dr. Taane Clark, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Low density microarrays as potential tools for DST in M. tuberculosis, Dr. Paolo Miotto, San Raffaele Scientific Institute
For more information on the congress, please visit www.esmcongress.org
The Cochrane Library publishes new systematic review on Xpert MTB/RIF
Xpert® MTB/RIF can accurately and quickly detect both TB and drug-resistant strains, according to a new study. The authors of a new systematic review assessing the diagnostic accuracy of the Xpert test published in The Cochrane Library say their study can provide timely advice for clinicians and policymakers in countries where TB is a major public health problem.
The researchers, from the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group, McGill University and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), analysed data from 18 studies involving nearly 8,000 people, with most studies being carried out in low- and middle-income countries.
Read full press release
Download systematic review
NDWG Annual Meeting 2012
The New Diagnostics Working Group held its Annual Meeting 2012 in conjunction with the 43rd Union World Conference on Tuesday, 13 November 2012, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
WHO launches Global Tuberculosis Report 2012
20 million lives saved through TB care and control
In the space of 17 years, 51 million people have been successfully treated and 20 million lives could be saved. The achievements have been secured by leadership in endemic countries and international support, but today WHO warned that the global fight against the disease remains fragile. "The momentum to break this disease is in real danger. We are now at a crossroads between TB elimination within our lifetime, and millions more TB deaths," said Dr Raviglione.
Key findings show:
- a continued decline in the number of people falling ill from TB, but still an enormous global burden of 8.7 million new cases in 2011;
- an estimated 1.4 million deaths from TB, including half a million women, underlining the disease as one of the world’s top killers of women;
- reduced rates of new disease and deaths in all of WHO’s six regions, although the African and European Regions are not yet on track to achieve goals to halve 1990 levels of mortality by 2015;
- a persistently slow progress in the MDR-TB response, with only 1 in 5 patients estimated to exist being diagnosed worldwide.
he report also highlights important advances in TB diagnosis but notes a US$ 1.4 billion funding gap per year for research and development of new tools.
Click here to download the report
