Also In Global News: Drug-Resistant TB, Circumcision

Main Category: Tuberculosis
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  HIV / AIDS;  Sexual Health / STDs
Article Date: 27 Aug 2009 - 3:00 PDT

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Overuse Of Fluoroquinolones Contributing To Spread Of Drug-Resistant TB, Study Says

"Widespread overprescribing" of a class of antibiotic drugs called fluoroquinolones is fueling the spread of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis and diminishing hopes that the drug could be used more widely to treat the disease, according to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, VOA News reports. The study found that almost one in five people who had been diagnosed with TB had received fluoroquinolones - which are also used to treat illnesses such as diarrhea and pneumonia - in the year before their diagnosis (Baragona, 8/25).

Circumcision Does Not Protect MSM From HIV, CDC Study Finds

A study by CDC researchers presented Tuesday found circumcision does not protect gay men from transmitting the virus, the Associated Press/Plain Dealer reports. The study of "nearly 4,900 men who had anal sex with an HIV-infected partner" showed essentially no difference in the infection rate between those who had and had not been circumcised. Circumcision has helped prevent HIV infection among heterosexual men in Africa and "UNAIDS and other international health organizations promote circumcision, the cutting away of the foreskin, as an important strategy for reducing the spread of the AIDS virus," the news service writes (Stobbe, 8/25).

This information was reprinted from globalhealth.kff.org with kind permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Global Health Policy Report, search the archives and sign up for email delivery at globalhealth.kff.org.

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