CAPE TOWN, South Africa – It wasn’t necessarily the health system in Zimbabwe that saved Constance Manwa when she was diagnosed with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis two years after being diagnosed with HIV. While an integrated care system had detected her HIV when she went in for prenatal care, the same system failed to quickly diagnose her MDR-TB, only correctly diagnosing her condition five months after she showed symptoms. At that point, Manwa was emaciated, relying on a walking stick and leaning on her mother to walk.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Health care workers should be considered a key population along with prisoners, miners, and other populations that are at higher risk than the general public of becoming infected with tuberculosis, speakers here said Friday (December 4).

* This is a transcript of the speech given by the General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign, Anele Yawa, at the closing ceremony of the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health.

CAPE TOWN, 5th DECEMBER 2015: Today activists disrupted the calm halls of the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health. Activists from the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), SECTION27, the Global TB Community Advisory Board, the Global Coalition of TB Activists (GCTA) and the ITPC sat on the floors of the hallways and held their own plenary session in huge disappointment at the “business as usual” status quo of the Union.

The eighth annual G-FINDER report found that $3.4bn was invested in neglected disease R&D in 2014. It also found that new funding for Ebola R&D mobilised in response to the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak was entirely responsible for the $150m increase in neglected disease R&D funding in 2014, with funding for all other neglected diseases essentially unchanged.

The Lancet Series on how to eliminate tuberculosis is a response to the fact that business as usual can no longer be an option in the fight against tuberculosis. Four Series papers address changes in the current strategy that will be necessary to achieve zero deaths from tuberculosis, and to reach 2050 elimination targets in high-burden settings.

Whole Genome Sequencing is a faster, cheaper and more effective way of diagnosing tuberculosis says a new study published in the journal Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Dr Louise Pankhurst of the University of Oxford and a team of worldwide collaborators including Public Health England utilised innovative DNA technology to diagnose cases of tuberculosis (TB) up to eight times faster than traditional methods. 

Ethiopia's political commitment, along with an army of thousands of health extension workers, is helping it to successfully tackle tuberculosis. Talha Burki reports from the capital, Addis Ababa.

The Global Fund prepared a toolkit to help partners implement differentiated care approaches in HIV and TB investments with the aim of maximizing cost efficiency and better serving the different needs of various communities most affected by diseases.

TB activists at the 46th Union World Conference on Lung Health demanded that pharmaceutical company Sanofi be held accountable for failing to provide life-saving products to people and children living with TB and drug-resistant TB in South Africa and across the world.