“Solidarity is our best immunity.” This is the kind of good hearted and honest leadership we need in the world at this moment. Thank you @drtedros.who.int and @who.int
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus@drtedros.who.int · 3mo ago
Emily Wong
@emilybethwong.bsky.social
Durban-ite, mom of 3, scientist, ID doc, plant lover, trying hard to understand subclinical / asymptomatic TB at AHRI & UAB 🇿🇦 🇺🇸 #TBsky #IDsky
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus@drtedros.who.int · 3mo agoExciting milestone for the #ATTIS study. The first 6 volunteers were screened for TB in KZN, South Africa! This marks the culmination of a huge amount of work to obtain this grant and set-up the study. It’s also just the beginning. 6 participants enrolled and 89,9994 to go! 1/2
Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)@ahri-news.bsky.social · 4mo ago✅ As we mark #WorldTBDay 2026, we're celebrating a milestone for one of our major studies: screening has started in South Africa to investigate asymptomatic TB transmission. @emilybethwong.bsky.social explains how & why the ATTIS study is exploring asymptomatic TB www.youtube.com/watch?v=M053...
We are hiring! Please circulate in your networks. Join us in beautiful warm and wonderful KZN to answer some important questions about asymptomatic / subclinical TB. #TBsky #IDsky 🧪
Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)@ahri-news.bsky.social · 12mo ago📢 AHRI is #hiring for 2️⃣ key roles for an exciting new study on asymptomatic TB transmission. Successful candidates will join the leadership of the study, working closely with our director for clinical trials Limakatso Lebina & @emilybethwong.bsky.social More ➡️ ahri.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/AHRI1
Here is a link you can blast out to all of your networks to ask them to consider signing on in support of our NIH heroes. actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na... We are at 5000 folks who have signed on. But we can do better Only for people who have ever been sick or knows someone who has been.
ADD YOUR NAME: Sign the Open Letter in Support of NIH Staff
Join the courageous and committed National Institutes of Health (NIH) public servants by adding your name now.
actionnetwork.org
This is a research ethics emergency 🚨 on the scale of those we know from history - the Tuskegee syphilis study, Nazi “scientific”atrocities. The impact on the global clinical research field is immense. Will we (scientists, participants, communities, ethics committees) ever trust funders again?
Nature@nature.com · last yr.NIH funding will abruptly cease for dozens, if not hundreds, of ongoing overseas trials of drugs and treatments. Its policy change puts thousands of trial participants in limbo. https://go.nature.com/3Z8xNM1
At the end of this summer, the future of U.S. science and research will be decided. From weather alerts to cancer breakthroughs, science shapes every part of our lives. We need everyone in this fight. The Summer Fight for Science starts now. Are you in? The fight starts here: bit.ly/4ddiuqU
Watching our field get torn apart in a matter of months makes me sick
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health@hsph.harvard.edu · last yr.With nearly all of Harvard Chan School’s direct federal grants terminated, we are relying on philanthropy to power our research and support our educational programs. Every gift, regardless of size, advances our vision of health, dignity, and justice for every human. Support our work: hsph.me/whygive
"TAG, MSF and the SAMRC have appealed for “alternative funds to sustain TB and HIV research in South Africa”. - VITAL VITAL VITAL - the USA failure is happening in the context of global shifts towards arms, away from health/research/etc
Thiru Balasubramaniam@thirugeneva.bsky.social · last yr.
This is truly sad nearly every single federal grant terminated at one of the largest schools of public health
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health@hsph.harvard.edu · last yr.With nearly all of Harvard Chan School’s direct federal grants terminated, we are relying on philanthropy to power our research and support our educational programs. Every gift, regardless of size, advances our vision of health, dignity, and justice for every human. Support our work: hsph.me/whygive
More sad news for 🇺🇸 science. Trying to keep steady in these times, but it’s hard. Difficult to give hope to early career scientists.
All 4 of my NIH research grants are terminated. These were grants on MDR-TB treatment & strategies for supporting adolescents living w/ HIV. This is a massive waste of resources. I am heartbroken for my Harvard team, my partners in Peru, the next generation of scientists & our country. Shame.
Thinking about cool science makes me happy these days. Also art, music and writing (all only if made by humans, not machines). Congrats to @oehlerslab.org and look forward to thinking about the human relevance of this finding.
Stefan Oehlers@oehlerslab.org · last yr.Why are prior and concurrent #TB such huge risk factors for M. abscessus infection? #zebrafish preprint lead by our research officer Denise Wee discovers tuberculous granulomas (yellow blob) act as a safe haven for opportunistic mycobacterial pathogens (magenta blobs).
Congratulations @jaynesutherlandtb.bsky.social - very exciting results for Xpert HR and a 3 protein biomarker!!
Jayne Sutherland@jaynesutherlandtb.bsky.social · last yr.Very happy to share our latest publication evaluating not 1, but 2 fingerstick blood screening tests for TB: Cepheid 3 gene test and a 3 protein test using lateral flow technology. Coming soon: evaluation in children and household contracts. Stay tuned... academic.oup.com/cid/advance-...
Being involved in this #TBsky “moonshot” program has been one of the high points of my career. Through the IMPAcTB contracts our 🇿🇦 team has into discovered insights into asymptomatic TB from #Vukuzazi in rural KZN and worked with the best and most fun scientists from around the 🌎. Targeting 🧪 is 💔🤯!
Joanne Flynn@joanneflynn19.bsky.social · last yr.Tuberculosis is not going away. If the cutting edge research goes away, #TB will rage on. Harvard is being targeted including the TB Immunology contract and that trickles down to all of us working on these studies. Progress will be halted. And TB will flourish. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/08/m...
My sincere thanks to Jeanne Marrazzo for her service as NIAID director. She delivered the Merigan lecture last year & then kindly met w/our trainees & faculty, listening openly to ideas & suggestions for how to make NIAID stronger. A brilliant yet humble physician-scientist. This is such a loss
Thank you for giving us a glimmer of hope on this grim day @booker.senate.gov
View from Argus@viewfromargus.bsky.social · last yr.Save the soul of America: #CoryBooker
💔This is a sad & scary day. Jeanne Marrazzo is so smart & such a good leader. With her at the helm our field could sleep a little easier. Losing her leadership is devestating to #IDsky 🧪 & 🌍 health. These ✂️ to NIH workforce put us in grave danger. Now & for a long time. www.cnn.com/2025/04/01/h...
‘It’s a bloodbath’: Massive wave of job cuts began at US health agencies | CNN
A massive wave of job cuts began at US health agencies early Tuesday, with some employees receiving early morning emails that their jobs were eliminated and some unable to access the building when the...
cnn.com
Unless the medical research community unites to come to the aid of the NIH staff, who are the only hope for stopping the descent of the whole system, that community itself will be shredded. There is no plan B to defunding NIH. Business cannot go on. Stop normalizing.
Jeremy Berg@jeremymberg.bsky.social · last yr.Try to imagine a situation where you are not allowed to do your job (e.g. working with applicants to formulate successful proposals), you and and your long-time colleagues are fearful of losing their job, ... 1/n
I have been continuously funded by the NIH for HIV/TB research in 🇿🇦 since 2008. Fogarty fellow & mentor x 3, T32, K08, R21, R01 subs, IMPAcTB subcontracts. I am proud of this body of work. My 💔’s for participants, colleagues, the next gen of scientists and my family. bhekisisa.org/health-news-...
[BREAKING] SA research grants potentially on hold, says leaked memo - Bhekisisa
A leaked memo for grant management staff of the US government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), dated March 25, instructs officers to hold “all [research] awards to entities located in South Afri...
bhekisisa.org
Yes. The situation at NIH is worse than the public realizes. The #NIH is on track to be effectively ended as a funder of evidence-based research within a year. That is not an exaggeration. The firings and consolidation announced today will create a new, MUCH worse NIH. 1/
Josh Marshall@joshtpm.bsky.social · last yr.The situation at the NIH and for all biomedical and cancer cure research in the United States is MUCH MUCH WORSE than you realize.
This article expresses all of my concerns. The ethical principles of human subjects research were born from the Nuremberg trials. We cannot experiment on people against the terms of their informed consent. And monitoring people’s safety are part of those terms. www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
The NIH’s Most Reckless Cuts Yet
Ending clinical trials with no warning can put patients at risk.
theatlantic.com
Emily Wong@emilybethwong.bsky.social · last yr.We really spoke from our hearts today. It was painful but cathartic to talk with my friends & comrades from UKZN and CAPRISA. We ended up inspired to join together and to fight! If you want to hear my raw response to the current crisis start at 45 minutes ✊🏽🇿🇦 www.youtube.com/live/5QF7GVu...
We really spoke from our hearts today. It was painful but cathartic to talk with my friends & comrades from UKZN and CAPRISA. We ended up inspired to join together and to fight! If you want to hear my raw response to the current crisis start at 45 minutes ✊🏽🇿🇦 www.youtube.com/live/5QF7GVu...
World Tuberculosis Day 2025
YouTube video by University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa
youtube.com
It's world TB day. The last two months have been a series of attacks on global health, infectious disease science and vulnerable populations. The damage will take decades to undo, and we are heading onto a steep global health disaster. We can't stay quiet. #tuberculosis #TB #WTBD2025
Today in the midst of a man-made crisis for science and health we mark #WorldTBDay. The irony is that because of the gem of 🇿🇦🇺🇸🌍 TB science we have better tools than ever and with sustained commitment and funding we coule actually #EndTB. Join us as we discuss the state of TB today at 1pm SAST!
Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)@ahri-news.bsky.social · last yr.📢 Today is #WorldTBDay2025 Join us to mark the day with a panel discussion focussed on innovations in #TB research in partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal & CAPRISA 📆 Monday, 24 March ⏰ 1 - 2.30pm SAST 🔗 youtube.com/@UKZNSouthAf... @emilybethwong.bsky.social #WorldTBDay #endTB
And yet the refrain I hear from the 🇿🇦 🧪community is that we are resiliant. We have survived difficulty before. We won’t stop fighting for our people. We won’t compromise our commitment to equity equality diversity evidence science health rights. We choose solidarity. We stand up to bullies. #IDsky
Emily Wong@emilybethwong.bsky.social · last yr.Haven’t received a letter yet myself but this is a heartbreaking and infuriating period for all of us in the 🇿🇦🇺🇸🌍 HIV & TB research communities. Everything we have worked towards - and HIV-free generation and the end of TB - is under assault. Man made tragedy.
Haven’t received a letter yet myself but this is a heartbreaking and infuriating period for all of us in the 🇿🇦🇺🇸🌍 HIV & TB research communities. Everything we have worked towards - and HIV-free generation and the end of TB - is under assault. Man made tragedy.
Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism@bhekisisa.org · last yr.JUST IN: For the past week, SA researchers have been on red alert out of fear that the Trump administration may end their grants. Now it’s happened. Find out more via @miamalan.bsky.social. bhekisisa.org/health-news-...