When her cough persisted more than two weeks, Ms Lucetha Nkatha decided to visit a health centre to seek treatment for what she thought was a seasonal flu. But this was the beginning of several trips to the hospital for the 29-year-old primary school teacher in 2004.

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WHO and PATH have published a toolkit designed to help countries develop or strengthen the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) components within national TB strategies or plans.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The bacterium that causes tuberculosis has a unique molecule on its outer cell surface that blocks a key part of the body's defense. New research suggests this represents a novel mechanism in the microbe's evolving efforts to remain hidden from the human immune system.

If worldwide smoking trends continue to 2050, tuberculosis (TB) mortality rates could jump by 40 million, according to a study published online today in the British Medical Journal.

Gyanu Lamichhane, a 35-year-old Nepali researcher at John Hopkins University School of Medicine, has drawn the world several steps closer in finding a better, faster and reliable cure for tuberculosis (TB), which kills over two million people across the globe each year.

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Recent studies have unequivocally demonstrated that patients with HIV/tuberculosis (TB) coinfection should begin antiretroviral therapy (ART) as soon as possible, but no later than 8 weeks, after initiation of TB therapy. The WHO recommends that ART for coinfected patients consist of two nucleosides (AZT or tenofovir + either 3TC or FTC) + efavirenz — and considers nevirapine an acceptable option when efavirenz cannot be used. Currently, nevirapine is the more widely used third drug because it is less expensive.

In a Huffington Post opinion piece, Kolleen Bouchane, director of ACTION, asks whether President Barack Obama will "heed Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu's call to action" in a recent Washington Post opinion piece "and do his part to end AIDS." She says, "While campaigning, President Obama promised to expand PEPFAR 'by $1 billion a year in new money over the next five years' and provide $50 billion by 2013 to fight HIV/AIDS worldwide. We are not on track to see even those promises become reality. We are not on track for the leadership to change the course of HIV and AIDS that Tutu has called for."