MOSCOW — Russia considers itself a robust member of the global community, keeping pace with heavyweights such as the United States and China. But when it comes to health, the world’s largest country is more in the company of Botswana.

Arusha, Tanzania – Pharmaceutical manufacturers in East Africa have joined forces to strengthen their production capacity to meet at least half of the region’s demand for affordable, quality medicines. The East African Community is supporting this ambitious goal through various initiatives, including a regional intellectual property policy to guide partner states on developing national legislation that fosters local pharmaceutical production.

The Food and Drug Administration has added Pfizer Inc's tuberculosis treatment rifampin to its list of drugs in short supply, the latest in a growing number of spottily available TB medications.

African Ministers of Finance and other leaders have agreed that the continent needs to shift from a reliance on exports of primary commodities to greater industrialization in order to accelerate the continent’s development. 800 ministers, experts and representatives of the United Nations met at the Annual Meeting of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Conference of African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development and Africa Union (AU) Conference of Ministers of Economy and Finance. The conference on ”Industrialization for an Emerging Africa.” opened in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire on 25 March.

Public Health Action is an open access journal, in electronic format only. The journal aims to promote the vision of The Union, Health solutions for the poor, by disseminating new knowledge on health systems and health services for vulnerable groups, with a priority on tuberculosis, lung health, non-communicable diseases and related public health issues.

Lilongwe, Malawi—An experienced nurse-midwife at Kaporo Rural Hospital in northern Malawi, Abigail Nyasulu is working toward a world without tuberculosis (TB). Nurse Abigail, as she is known, has been successfully including TB awareness in her educational sessions with pregnant women who come to the hospital every Wednesday for prenatal care.

JOHANNESBURG, 25 March 2013 (IRIN) - South Africa's gold mines are estimated to have the highest number of new tuberculosis (TB) cases in the world, making the disease a leading export to neighbouring countries. IRIN takes a look at the declaration meant to change this situation.

CAPE TOWN – 25 March 2013 – At a time of growing global concern about the rising level of drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis in South Africa and worldwide, the world’s top TB vaccine experts are meeting this week, the first time this scientific forum has been held in Africa, where they will present new research aimed at advancing development of vaccines against the deadly airborne disease.

24 March 2013 - Cape Town - The Deputy President of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe, today handed over six Xpert diagnostic machines to the country’s prison service, providing access to rapid tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis for more than 30% of the country’s prison population.

March 24 marks the anniversary of the discovery in 1882 by German microbiologist Robert Koch of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB). With that knowledge in hand, one might expect that by now we would have the disease under control. Tragically, this is not the case. In 2013, thousands of years after the first human cases of TB were recorded and more than a century after Koch isolated the rod-shaped microbe that causes TB, this disease remains entrenched in many countries around the world.