Patients with tuberculosis (TB) in India are experiencing extremely high costs related to lost productivity and hospital stays, as highlighted by a study conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) (!--ref1--). The study led by researchers from the ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE), in Chennai, showed that TB continues to pose a significant social and economic burden to households. "bPersons with TB in India incur high costs mainly due to lost productivity and hospitalisation ..read more

India's substantial decrease in TB cases and deaths has been lauded as "remarkable" by Mario C.B. Raviglione, a former leader of the World Health Organization's Global TB Programme. h2India's Remarkable Progress Against TB/h2 Speaking exclusively to IANS, Raviglione noted that this indicates a "high level of political commitment." "There has been major progress in India in the last 25 years. The 18 percent decline is about 2 percent per year in the last decade. It is something remarkable ..read more

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare JP Nadda stated on Saturday that early detection of tuberculosis (TB) in India (!--ref1--) has greatly improved, thanks to easy access to diagnostics available at over 1.7 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. He said this while launching the intensified 100-Day TB elimination campaign in Haryana's Panchkula today. The campaign, to be implemented in 347 most affected districts across the country, aims to find and treat missing TB cases, especially in ..read more

Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised initiatives like Nikshay Mitras and shorter, more effective btuberculosis (TB)/b treatments for their role in reducing the prevalence of tuberculosis in India, as the country works towards its goal of beliminating the disease by 2025./b PM Modi said that such initiatives have helped in increasing the rate of recovery. "Initiatives like bNikshay Mitras/b and shorter, effective treatments have significantly reduced TB incidence, improved recovery ..read more

The rod-shaped tuberculosis (TB) bacterium, ranked by the World Health Organization as the leading infectious disease killer worldwide, is the first single-celled organism observed to sustain a consistent growth rate throughout its life cycle. This discovery challenges long-held beliefs in bacterial cell biology and offers new insights into why this deadly pathogen is so adept at evading both our immune system and antibiotics. (!--ref1--) h2TB Pathogen Breaks the Rules/h2 "The most ..read more

A new antibiotic for tuberculosis (TB) targets multidrug-resistant strains, paving the way for advanced treatments and innovative drug development, according to Rutgers Health research. The study from scientists at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and other institutions found that deficiencies in a critical enzyme make tuberculosis bacteria that resist old antibiotics more vulnerable to the new antibiotic bedaquiline. The findings of the study are published in the journal iNature Communications/i (!--ref1 ..read more

Children living in areas with a high tuberculosis (TB) burden face a consistently high risk of developing TB infection throughout their childhood, reports a new study. An estimated 1.2 million children develop tuberculosis disease (TB) and 200,000 kids die from TB worldwide each year, but the risk of developing TB infection and disease throughout childhood remains under-studied. Furthermore, the majority of studies on the pediatric burden of TB are informed by data from patients in healthcare settings ..read more

Despite India's goal to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) by 2025, five years earlier than the global target, a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that the country bears the highest global burden of TB at 26 percent (!--ref1--). Globally, TB again emerged as the leading infectious disease killer in 2023, surpassing Covid-19. It showed that about 8.2 million people were newly diagnosed with TB in 2023 -- the highest number recorded since WHO began global TB monitoring in 1995 ..read more

For the first time, scientists have devised an innovative method to deliver tuberculosis (TB) (!--ref1--) medication directly to the brain through the nasal route. TB that affects the brain is called Central Nervous System Tuberculosis (CNS-TB) and is one of the most dangerous forms of TB, often leading to severe complications or death. h2Revolutionizing TB Therapy: New Treatment/h2 The novel nose-to-brain (N2B) drug delivery utilises the olfactory and trigeminal nerve pathways ..read more

A promising new therapy for medlinktuberculosis/medlink (TB) has been shown to be compatible with combined antiretroviral therapy (cART), stated research conducted by the Texas Biomedical Research Institute (!--ref1--). "This is an important hurdle that this bhost-directed therapy had to clear in order to help patients battling both HIV and TB,"/b said Texas Biomed Professor Smriti Mehra, Ph.D., who led the study recently published in the peer-reviewed journal iJCI Insight./i ..read more