According to the World Health Organization, each year there are approximately three million undiagnosed cases of tuberculosis (TB) globally, which are characterized as the "missing millions." In a cutting-edge study, scientists have tested a diagnostic device using dielectrophoresis that holds promise for improving TB detection and treatment of patients in high-endemic, under-resourced areas. Bringing diagnostics to the patients who need it most will help meet global targets to reduce the burden of TB. The research results appear in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.

For treatment of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI), short-course rifamycin-based regimens are preferred over longer-course isoniazid monotherapy, according to guidelines published in the Feb. 14 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

An estimated 12.6 million persons in the United States could benefit from treatment to prevent active tuberculosis (TB), according to a report published in the October issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For HIV-infected patients, a one-month regimen of rifapentine and isoniazid is noninferior to nine months of isoniazid alone for preventing tuberculosis, according to a study published in the March 14 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Lymph nodes can contain large numbers of tuberculosis-causing bacteria and serve as long-term reservoirs of bacterial persistence, according to a study published November 1 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by JoAnne Flynn of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and colleagues. As niches for persistent infection, these organs are likely to play a larger role in tuberculosis than previously appreciated.

A new treatment for a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis can cure more than 90 percent of sufferers, according to a trial hailed Monday (October 22) as a "game changer" in the fight against the global killer.

Researchers from BIOCAPS will collaborate with scientists from seven countries to design a future vaccine against one of the most persistent diseases worldwide, an infectious disease that provokes one death every 24 seconds: tuberculosis. Specifically, experts from the Institute of Biomedical Research of Vigo (IBI) will search for biomarkers that are correlated with protective immune responses against the pathogen that causes the disease, a key step in the development of an effective vaccine.

Silica dust hazards in large gold mines have been well documented, but the situation is far worse in small-scale gold mining according to a new study.

A simple breath test may one day show whether someone has a strain of tuberculosis that will respond to a frontline antibiotic, or a drug-resistant type, scientists said Tuesday (September 23).

Early detection of drug resistance constitutes one of the priorities of tuberculosis (TB) control programmes. It allows initiation of the appropriate treatment in patients and also surveillance of drug resistance. Associated with this problem is the emergence of multi-drug–resistant (MDR) and extensive drug-resistant (XDR) strains of M. tuberculosis.