For decades Africa has been ravaged by its three most life-threatening diseases: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria. The "deadly trio" takes the lives of millions of Africans every year, but instead of focusing on these ruthless diseases, many African governments are spending their budgets on guns or exorbitant political salaries, while failing to fulfill their promises to protect their citizens by investing in health and in providing medical prevention and treatment - the weapons that are needed the most.

What do George Orwell, Frederic Chopin and Archbishop Desmond Tutu have in common?

Although virtually no public or political attention is paid to it as a public health issue, tuberculosis remains among the top 10 killers of children worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 176,000 children have died, but the consensus among researchers says that actual figures are higher. In 2009 alone, at least 1 million children became sick with TB.

In advance of World TB Day (Saturday, March 24) Science Speaks sat down with tuberculosis (TB) expert Lee B. Reichman, MD, MPH, founding executive director of the New Jersey Medical School Global Tuberculosis Institute, to discuss the spread of drug-resistant TB and what he thinks are the most promising advances coming down the scientific pipeline.  Dr. Reichman has published more than 200 articles, scientific reviews and book chapters focusing on the diagnosis, treatment, prevention, control, regimen adherence and epidemiology of and advocacy for TB. He also co-authored the book Timebomb: The Global Epidemic of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis with Janice Hopkins Tanne in 2002.

Against a backdrop of growing concern about the impact of tuberculosis on children, top scientific experts today published a global plan of action for developing the vaccines that are seen as critical to eliminating the disease.

LONDON (Reuters)- On New Year's Eve 2004, after months of losing weight and suffering fevers, night sweats and shortness of breath, student Anna Watterson was taken into hospital coughing up blood.

After nearly 50 years, the drug development pipeline for new tuberculosis (TB) treatments is finally opening up again, according to infectious disease specialists.

Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) released its annual report to Congress on U.S. Government (USG) international foreign assistance for tuberculosis (TB) control.

"About 900,000 cases of active tuberculosis (TB) were discovered and treated [in China] in 2011, including 423,000 infectious cases, the Ministry of Health (MOH) announced Monday at a press conference," Xinhua reports. "Xiao Donglou, a health inspector from the MOH, said at the press conference that China improved its ability to prevent and control TB last year, focusing on HIV/TB co-infections and cases of TB among the country's migrant population," noting "1,701 HIV/TB co-infections were reported last year, as well as 51,682 cases of TB among the migrant population," the news agency writes.

Goal is to find new treatment that takes months, not years, and cures multiple forms of tuberculosis.