News 2024
15.05.2024
Prevention of tuberculosis: When should contact persons receive preventive treatment?
In a large-scale systematic review, researchers from an international consortium examined more than 25,000 publications from the last 20 years. They examined under which circumstances contact persons of tuberculosis (TB) sufferers benefit from receiving preventive antibiotic therapy so that they do not fall ill themselves. The results showed that the effective strategy depends on the TB incidence of the country: in low-incidence countries, it makes sense to give preventive treatment only to contact persons who have been tested with a skin test or blood test indicating contact with tuberculosis bacteria. In high-incidence countries, all close contacts of people with tuberculosis should receive preventive treatment if no tests are available.
30.04.2024
Together against infections: Cooperation agreed with renowned Indian research institute
In April, a total of 15 researchers from the Research Center Borstel, Leibniz Lung Center and the Julius-Maximilians-Universität in Würzburg traveled to Indore (India) to share their latest research findings in the field of bacterial infectious diseases and to intensify their existing collaboration during a three-day workshop.
27.03.2024
Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis
Antibiotic resistance is one of the challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. This includes antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, a topic for which the Research Center Borstel has particular expertise. Just in time for World Tuberculosis Day 2024, the journal Nature Reviews Disease Primers published a comprehensive overview of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. In this review, international experts from various medical disciplines shed light on the relevant topics of this complex disease, including epidemiology, transmission, prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
21.03.2024
New pioneering Leibniz Lab to combat future pandemics
The new Leibniz Lab "Pandemic Preparedness: One Health, One Future" links excellent inter- and transdisciplinary research from 41 Leibniz institutes. For the first time in Germany, pathogen-oriented sciences (virology, bacteriology, mycology and immunology) are collaborating with other life sciences such as ecology, health technologies, health economics and educational research. This new instrument of the Leibniz Association will be funded for three years with three million euro. The aim of the Leibniz Lab is to pool research in these areas in order to prepare, to prevent and to respond better to future pandemics and to make the knowledge gained available to policymakers in the form of evidence-based recommendations for action.
21.03.2024
Tuberculosis epidemiology in people of Ukrainian origin in the European Union and the European Economic Area, 2019 – 2022
Ukraine has a tuberculosis (TB) notification rate about six times higher than the total rate in the European Union and the European Economic Area (EU/EEA) and is a high-priority country in regards to drug-resistant TB. According to Eurostat data, approximately 5 million Ukrainians have been displaced to the countries of the EU/EEA since the start of the Russia – Ukraine war.
In close collaboration with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), we evaluated the tuberculosis epidemiology in Ukrainians notified in the EU/EEA from 2019 to 2022 by using routinely collected surveillance data.