18 July 2007 -- Baltimore, Maryland -- George Wills Comstock, a physician, epidemiologist and important leader on tuberculosis research died at his home in Maryland, USA on Sunday. He was 92.
A professor emeritus at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, he was a distinguished epidemiologist who conducted seminal research on tuberculosis control and treatment and on cancer, heart disease, and lung disease.
Comstock authored hundreds of scientific papers and received numerous awards for his work on tuberculosis control, including the John Snow Award from the American Public Health Association, the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal from the American Thoracic Society, the Maxwell Finland Award for Scientific Achievement from the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Career Research Award.
He began his career in public health as a commissioned officer with the U.S. Public Health Service in 1942. During the last six years of his 20 years of service, he was the chief of Epidemiological Studies, Tuberculosis Program. In 1957, Comstock conducted research in Bethel, Alaska, where tuberculosis was rampant. His work there demonstrated the effectiveness of the drug isoniazid in preventing tuberculosis-data that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still used in 2000 when the agency updated its treatment guidelines for latent tuberculosis.
In 1962, Comstock founded the Johns Hopkins Training Center for Public Health Research and Prevention in Hagerstown, Maryland. For the next 30 years, Comstock oversaw community-based research studies on numerous diseases including cancer, heart disease and eye disease. The Center was renamed in Comstock’s honor in 2005 and is now an important training ground for epidemiology students from around the world.
Based on Reporting from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

28 June 2007 -- Geneva -- The UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board has requested the international community to significantly increase investment in basic tuberculosis control programs in line with the World Health Organization and Stop TB Partnership as the key to preventing the further development and spread of drug-resistant tuberculosis. The Board has also asked that they dedicate considerable additional resources to fill the long-term global financing gaps for tuberculosis and HIV.

In his speech to the Board, UNAIDS Executive Director Dr Peter Piot acknowledged tuberculosis as the leading cause of illness and death in people living with HIV. "We continue to miss valuable opportunities to detect tuberculosis and prevent it spreading among people living with HIV. The emergence of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis strains is a dramatic wake-up call: if we don’t factor and integrate tuberculosis into HIV treatment programmes, we will get nowhere", he said.

HIV/AIDS and TB are so closely connected that the term "co-epidemic" or "dual epidemic" is often used to describe their relationship, which is also referred to as TB/HIV or HIV/TB. Many people infected with HIV in developing countries develop TB as the first manifestation of AIDS. The two diseases represent a deadly combination, since they are far more destructive together than either disease alone. At least one-third of the 38.6 million people living with HIV worldwide are co-infected with TB and at greatly increased risk of developing TB disease.

24 June 2007 -- Herat, Afghanistan -- Anna Cataldi, UN Messenger of Peace, and Mr Massimiiano d'Antuono, Deputy Italian Ambassador in Herat (right), were present for the inauguration of a new TB hospital built with the support of the government of Italy. Ms Cataldi is visiting Afghanistan at the invitation of the Office of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. Her aim is to build further political commitment and support to TB control from the Afghan authorities and partners, including donor countries and NGOs working in the field. His Excellency Amin Fatimi, the Afghan Health Minister, also was present at the ceremony. As part of her mission Ms Cataldi also is meeting with President Hamid Karzai.