South Africa grants almost every patent application it receives, making its patent regime one of the world’s most lenient. While pharmaceutical companies cash in, patients face staggering healthcare costs, and medicines like cancer treatments, third-line antiretrovirals (ARVs) and treatments for drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) are often priced out of reach.

JOHANNESBURG, 9 October 2012 (PlusNews) - After a troubled past, a revamped South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) was recently unveiled, coinciding with the announcement that the country has achieved universal access to HIV treatment. South Africa must now ramp-up prevention, new SANAC CEO Fareed Abdullah said.

For three years, Lydia* and her three small children have slept rough on the streets of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, begging for handouts from passers-by during the day and huddling together for warmth in alleys at night. She was diagnosed with TB a year ago when she visited a public health facility, but was unable to finish her medication due to lack of food and now her health is deteriorating.

At least a hundred protesters arrived at South Africa's parliament on 11 July to demonstrate their disapproval of the ongoing court case by Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis against the Indian government over its patent laws. As the case draws to a close, health organizations say a win for the pharmaceutical company will be a loss to the developing world, which sources the bulk of its generic medicines from India.

South Africa will increasingly move towards nurse-initiated treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the next five years, and a programme in KwaZulu-Natal Province, which has a high HIV/TB burden, is already training nurses to manage MDR-TB patients.

Tuberculosis (TB) rates in South Africa's prisons could be cut by up to 94 percent if the country reduced overcrowded conditions in cells and implemented active TB case finding, according to research presented at the recent South African TB Conference.

TB activists have a lot on their plates - whether it’s affordable access to the latest tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics, or pushing for more paediatric formulations. IRIN/PlusNews takes a look at the top three issues.

South Africa’s move to decentralize the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) has given rise to a crop of nurses equipped not only to initiate patients on HIV treatment, but also to prescribe for and monitor drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) patients. However, experts and government officials say the need for specialist physicians and hospitals will continue, based on research presented at the South African TB conference in the port city of Durban.

Elsie, Bernard and their five children share a tiny tin-walled single room in Nyalenda, an informal settlement in Kisumu, in Kenya's Nyanza Province. They are both infected with HIV and TB.

MBABANE, 26 April 2012 (PlusNews) - Hospitals are not protecting their workers from tuberculosis (TB) infection, say nurses in Swaziland, who recently staged a rare public demonstration to draw attention to how vulnerable they are to this highly infectious disease.