Mumbai (AFP) – When Covid-19 ripped through India in 2020-21, several million people are thought to have died. Desperate efforts to stem the pandemic hurt the battle against another huge killer: tuberculosis.

Millions of people with high blood sugar may be at greater risk of tuberculosis than previously thought, scientists said Friday, warning that diabetes and TB could combine to create the "perfect storm" of disease.

An on-the-spot sputum test for tuberculosis works better than the commonly-used, 125-year-old microscope method, but did not reduce illness in a southern African trial, a study said Monday.