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STOP TB PARTNERS PARTICIPATE IN THE GLOBAL MINISTERIAL FORUM ON RESEARCH FOR HEALTH AND SUPPORT ITS CALL TO ACTION

From 12-19 November, over 1,100 representatives from a wide array of organizations and governments participated in the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health held in Bamako and hosted by the Government of Mali.

Six Stop TB Partners participated in a special session, which provided an overview of the aims of the Stop TB Research Movement, funding needs and gaps in TB treatment and research, advances in drug, vaccine and diagnostic product development, and incentive schemes that could help further stimulate engagement and results. The session was organized by the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat, with Chief Executive Officers and/or senior staff participating from the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development, Médecins Sans Frontières, the Medical Research Council of South Africa, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases, Treatment Action Group and WHO Stop TB Department.

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New tools for TB control - filling gaps, overcoming barriers

WHO's role in, and contribution to, the Research Movement: recommendations by WHO's independant TB advisory group (STAG-TB)

The Seventh Meeting of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on TB (STAG-TB) was held from 11-13 June, 2007, at WHO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland. STAG-TB provides an independent evaluation to WHO's Director-General of the strategic, scientific and technical aspects of WHO's work on TB. This extract from the report provides the recommendations arising from review of WHO's role in, and contribution to, the Research Movement of the Stop TB Partnership.

New gateway to science information

In parallel with the European Commission's efforts to boost access to science, WorldWideScience.org, an internet portal providing a single entry point to several national and international scientific databases, has been launched by the US and UK.

The site http://worldwidescience.org/ was launched in June 2007 to offer a gateway to science information, with 15 national portals in nine countries contributing to date. The site developers - the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the British Library - are now inviting more national and international science databases to join the venture and make their collections accessible. The WorldWideScience.org portal relies on a novel technology called "federated search", which allows users to search with a single query for parallel international and national science portals, allowing for access to databases that are not available through commercial search engines such as Google.

WHO Clinical Trial Search Portal

WHO launched a new web site on 4 May 2007 that makes it easier to search for information on clinical trials. The Clinical Trial Search Portal http://www.who.int/trialsearch/ is a collaborative initiative led by WHO that facilitates the identification of all clinical trials, regardless of whether or not they have been published. The web site enables users to search a central database that contains the trial registration data sets provided by Primary Registers. For health-care researchers, funders, policy-makers and consumers the portal represents an enormous step towards greater, access, transparency and accountability of health research globally.

Database to speed development of drugs to treat neglected diseases, including TB and malaria

The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) in April 2007 launched a new online database called that aims to accelerate the development of drugs to treat diseases that largely affect developing countries, including malaria and tuberculosis. The Drug Target Prioritization Database aims to serve as a centralized clearinghouse of research findings and genetic information to facilitate the development of drugs for diseases that affect billions of people and cause roughly six million deaths annually yet receive little attention because they have low commercial potential. The database enables researchers all over the world to have access to the information.

Additionally, TDR is launching TropiKA.net in September 2007, a free online resource of articles and journals on tropical diseases.