African scientists have developed and patented a test for TB that overcomes two major challenges with current methods: it delivers quick results and is much cheaper.
Understanding what causes diseases is a life-and-death matter. It is a complicated issue that has generated a great deal of debate in the medical community.
An x-ray showing a pair of lungs infected with TB (tuberculosis).
Luke MacGregor/Reuters
In countries such as South Africa with a high burden of TB and HIV, vitamin D could be an extremely effective and cheap weapon to include in the arsenal against TB and HIV.
As much as animals may pass on viruses to humans, humans pass on viruses which are sometimes lethal to the animal world as well.
Improving maternal mortality and ending preventable deaths in children are some of the health targets in the Sustainable Development Goals.
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/Flickr
Health has secured its place as one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. But without clear mechanisms to report, finance or engage other sectors, could more end up as less?
We used to think that antibiotic resistance came at a cost for bacteria, making them weaker. It turns out that for some bacteria, resistance can make them stronger and more virulent.
A new technique could help uncover previously unknown genetic factors contributing to susceptibility to TB.
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Although one third of the world’s population have the TB bacterium, the disease only develops in 10%, which may be linked to genetic factors.
Eradicating TB across the globe by 2035, as the World Health Organisation hopes to do, will only take place if the global funding and will improves.
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More than 1.5 million people die of tuberculosis across the world every year. Although testing and screening has improved and more drugs are available, it is not enough to conquer the scourge.
Buffalo are the main wildlife carriers of Bovine TB, a disease that poses a threat not only to animals but also to humans.
Thomas Mukoya/REUTERS
People living in close proximity to animals infected with Bovine TB are at a risk of contracting the disease through drinking their milk and eating their meat.
Some experts worry that the Ebola crisis is diverting attention and resources away from neglected diseases with a substantially larger disease incidence.
Nations of the world came together in 2000 to make a solemn commitment to humanity to combat tuberculosis (TB), HIV/AIDS and other devastating diseases. This pushed governments to set up aggressive public…
Bovine tuberculosis is a major problem in the UK: in 2013 around 8m cattle were tested and 32,000 slaughtered at a cost of an estimated £100m, including compensation – a huge economic burden that makes…
Barriers to migrants’ healthcare access must be lowered.
US Navy
For many people in the UK, tuberculosis is a disease that’s been out of sight, out of mind for a number of years. Although it is low and middle-income countries that bear the burden of TB-related sickness…
Nearly 60% of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis’ global burden occurs in the Asia-Pacific region.
DFAT Photo Library/ Flickr
Tuberculosis, or consumption as it used to be known, sounds like a disease that we’ve managed to fight off for good. But a drug-resistant strain of the bacteria that causes it is making a comeback, and…
Infectious Diseases Physician and Senior Clinical Lecturer, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Research Associate, University of Liverpool
Head of the Immunology Research Group at the Division of Molecular Biology & Human Genetics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University