Six months after a special plan to combat tuberculosis was introduced in the city, there is an estimate of just how widespread the deadly drug-resistant variety of the disease is in the community. Of 6,561 people screened for the disease across the city, 1,407 tested positive, said BMC officials on Tuesday.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria yesterday released the funding recommendations of its Technical Review Panel for the Transitional Funding Mechanism. This mechanism was established by the Global Fund in December 2011 as a means to protecting gains achieved and ensuring essential programmes were maintained following the cancellation of its 11th round of grants.

A low-cost assay that can be used in the clinic detected a proportion of advanced TB cases at an HIV center in South Africa. The researchers suggest using the test in areas with high TB prevalence might identify some people who would benefit from rapid anti-TB therapy.

Namibia advanced its battle against tuberculosis (TB) last week when the Minister of Health and Social Services, Richard Kamwi launched the National Guidelines for the Management of Tuberculosis alongside the GeneXpert machine.

Homeless people across the world have dramatically higher rates of infection with tuberculosis (TB), HIV and hepatitis C and could fuel community epidemics that cost governments dear, a study showed on Monday.

South African health activists and pharmaceutical industry stakeholders are keeping close watch over the government’s attempts to amend patent laws, which activists claim compromise the ability of the country’s poor majority to access cheaper generic medicines.

A new interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) for diagnosing tuberculosis performs as well as an earlier test, but uses only a third of the blood, researchers have found.

China is set to extend and expand its pioneering pilot programme of bi-directional screening for tuberculosis and diabetes after registering some promising initial results. James Mullins reports.

Tuberculosis (TB) is responsible for 60 percent of the deaths among persons living with HIV/AIDS.

Given this relationship, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that care services are integrated between the two conditions. Uganda has registered some progress but the technocrats want the success rate at 100 percent. Kakaire Ayub Kirunda spoke to Dr Anna Nakanwagi Mukwaya, the Chief of Party in Uganda for the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) to put things into perspective.

On August 18, the SADC heads of state will sign their declaration on TB in the mining industry.