In northwestern Uzbekistan, drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) are spreading while only one in 10 people with TB receives treatment. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has treated more than 2,000 people with drug-resistant TB in Uzbekistan over the last 10 years.

SAN DIEGO -- Ear involvement is a rare, but potentially devastating, manifestation of tuberculosis, as was shown in a case report presented here.

NEW DELHI: Tibetans in exile, living in India, are now facing a serious enemy in Tuberculosis. The Union health ministry says Tibetans in exile have one of the highest rates of TB in the world.

Patients with tuberculosis claim they have not been receiving medications for treating multi-drug resistant forms of tuberculosis. Patients must take these medications non-stop, otherwise the disease starts to progress causing patients’ death. At the same time, during the recent press-conference on the World TB Day representatives of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation reported that the state spent 2.4 billion roubles for the procurement of TB drugs in 2011, and provided patients with free treatment.

Just under three billion people live on less than US$2 per day, in resource-limited countries where key medicines protected by patents are unaffordable.

* Drug-resistant strains spreading in miners
* HIV/AIDS infection adds to the risks
* TB spreading from mines to other parts of Africa

The U.S. starts a new program of fight against tuberculosis in Georgia worth $4.4 million. Georgian First Lady Sandra Roelofs, U.S. Ambassador John Bass and director of the National Center for Disease Control Nata Avaliani will open a new program of treatment and prevention of tuberculosis on April 5.

Science Speaks continues its interview series exploring the global HIV and tuberculosis research and development efforts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with a conversation with Bess Miller, MD, MSc, who works in the Division of Global HIV/AIDS. Dr. Miller has served as associate director and team lead for HIV/TB, providing leadership in policy and implementation of TB/HIV activities in 43 resource-limited countries supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).  She has worked to align PEPFAR TB/HIV priorities with the World Health Organization (WHO) policies on TB/HIV, and on the use of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in people living with HIV (PLHIV). 

Investment in national tuberculosis (TB) programmes improves TB detection rates, a study published in a special supplement of the Journal of Infectious Diseases shows.