Global Progress and Challenges in Implementing New Medications for Treating Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis.

Two new drugs-bedaquiline and delamanid-have recently been approved by stringent regulatory authorities to treat multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) and recommended by the World Health Organization for use under defined programmatic conditions. Introducing the medications in TB programs worldwide has not kept pace with the need for these drugs. In response, the DR-TB STAT (Drug-Resistant TB Scale-up Treatment Action Team) task force was formed in April 2015 to monitor progress and help overcome challenges.

Preferred antiretroviral drugs for the next decade of scale up.

Global commitments aim to provide antiretroviral therapy (ART) to 15 million people living with HIV by 2015, and recent studies have demonstrated the potential for widespread ART to prevent HIV transmission. Increasingly, countries are adapting their national guidelines to start ART earlier, for both clinical and preventive benefits. To maximize the benefits of ART in resource-limited settings, six key principles need to guide ART choice: simplicity, tolerability and safety, durability, universal applicability, affordability and heat stability.

Antiretroviral treatment outcomes from a nurse-driven, community-supported HIV/AIDS treatment programme in rural Lesotho: observational cohort assessment at two years.

Introduction: Lesotho has the third highest HIV prevalence in the world (an adult prevalence of 23.2%). Despite a lack of resources for health, the country has implemented state-of-the-art antiretroviral treatment guidelines, including early initiation of treatment (<350 cells/mm3), tenofovir in first line, and nurse-initiated and managed HIV care, including antiretroviral therapy (ART), at primary health care level.