Infection by the TB infectious agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis can exist within the human body as a contained latent infection, active disease, or be eradicated by the host immunological response.  TB diagnostics are required to categorize a patient into one of these categories.  However, case detection remains difficult today due to inaccurate diagnostic methods and confounding factors such as HIV infection, immunosuppressive therapies, anti-tuberculosis treatments, drug-resistant TB bacteria strains and poorly understood other factors[1].  Modern-day TB diagnostic tools in developed countries are neither appropriate nor affordable for resource-poor environments.  National TB programs in disease-endemic countries still rely on older and inaccurate methods for confirming TB in patients.  Without correct diagnosis of a patient’s condition, there is lower probability that appropriate medical treatment will be provided and effect a cure of the disease.

Rising poverty, overcrowded public transport, and sprawling slums threaten to reverse the gains made in eradicating tuberculosis (TB) in Egypt, experts say.

Up to 30% of the world's population is infected with Tuberculosis (TB), but in many areas of the world, TB diagnosis still relies on insensitive, poorly standardized, and time-consuming methods. A new diagnostic tool, endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO), may change that. Dr. Thomas Bodmer shows how it's done in the Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE).

In northwestern Uzbekistan, drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB) are spreading while only one in 10 people with TB receives treatment. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has treated more than 2,000 people with drug-resistant TB in Uzbekistan over the last 10 years.

SAN DIEGO -- Ear involvement is a rare, but potentially devastating, manifestation of tuberculosis, as was shown in a case report presented here.

NEW DELHI: Tibetans in exile, living in India, are now facing a serious enemy in Tuberculosis. The Union health ministry says Tibetans in exile have one of the highest rates of TB in the world.

Patients with tuberculosis claim they have not been receiving medications for treating multi-drug resistant forms of tuberculosis. Patients must take these medications non-stop, otherwise the disease starts to progress causing patients’ death. At the same time, during the recent press-conference on the World TB Day representatives of the Ministry of Health and Social Development of the Russian Federation reported that the state spent 2.4 billion roubles for the procurement of TB drugs in 2011, and provided patients with free treatment.

Just under three billion people live on less than US$2 per day, in resource-limited countries where key medicines protected by patents are unaffordable.

* Drug-resistant strains spreading in miners
* HIV/AIDS infection adds to the risks
* TB spreading from mines to other parts of Africa