A frightened man sat before the doctor, waiting patiently to be examined. As the doctor scribbled some notes, the man doubled over, heavy coughs racking his frail body. The doctor noted the coughs with rising alarm and immediately arranged for blood tests and a chest X-ray.

An acute government funding crisis in Swaziland, Africa's last absolute monarchy, is disrupting supplies of HIV/AIDS drugs and hampering the fight against the virus in the country with the world's highest infection rate, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF) said Friday.

Successful treatment of tuberculosis (TB) involves taking anti-tuberculosis drugs for at least six months. Poor adherence to treatment means patients remain infectious for longer, are more likely to relapse or succumb to tuberculosis and could result in treatment failure as well as foster emergence of drug resistant tuberculosis.

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is currently in a battle with potentially preventable and treatable tuberculosis, as reported in today’s Age and Sydney Morning Herald newspapers. The disease has increased in the Pacific nation by 42% over the past decade.

Targeted action is needed to prevent the spread of tuberculosis (TB) and ensure treatment success among patients who have difficulty recognising symptoms, accessing health services and taking medication. The patients who are hardest to reach through traditional hospital based TB services include people with drug or alcohol addiction, homeless people, prisoners and some migrant communities.

Although there is free medical care available to the people of Mali, tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death in the country.

Fuelled by the HIV pandemic and the spread of drug-resistant strains, tuberculosis (TB) has re-emerged as a major threat to global health. TB is a curable disease that continues to affect millions of people globally each year, and is a leading cause of death in HIV positive people. According to the 2009 WHO Report on Global TB Control, there were 9.4 million new TB cases in 2008, out of which 1.4 million (14%) were HIV positive (78% of them were in Africa and 13% in Southeast Asia). Mortality from TB was 1.7 million, and about 0.5 million of these deaths were in People Living with HIV (PLHIV), who are at a much increased risk of contracting TB. In high burden HIV settings (like the sub Saharan region) more than 70% of TB patients are living with HIV. So, universal access to HIV care cannot be achieved without addressing TB.

Abstract

The tendency, common among Ugandans, to assume individuals are HIV-positive or negative without prior testing is undermining the positive results the country had registered in its initial fight against HIV/AIDS in the 1990s, a new study has shown.

Pretoria — The latest tuberculosis (TB) cure rate statistics in Gauteng show some success said the Department of Health and Social Development on Sunday.