Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis

Stop TB

Link: 
http://www.stoptb.org/
The web site of the STOP TB Initiative - a global partnership for global action to stop TB. Extensive set of information on programmes, news, latest updates, events, activities, liniks, facts, treatment, impact.

An assessment of current support strategies for patients with TB in KwaZulu-Natal

Health Systems Trust (HST) has just released its latest publication entitled, An assessment of current support strategies for patients with TB in KwaZulu-Natal. The study probed the level of need for material assistance experienced by patients, and the impact of such assistance's provision.

An Assessment of Current Support Strategies for Patients with TB in KwaZulu-Natal

Published by: 
Health Systems Trust

Poverty has long been recognized as one of the factors predisposing people to TB (Lancet 2005) and, in South Africa, many patients with TB live in poor conditions. In order to ameliorate these conditions, a few initiatives to support patients with TB have been made in KwaZulu-Natal. To date, support for TB patients has been provided in the form of free treatment at government hospitals and clinics (Department of Health 2001), and nutritional supplementation and social grants (Department of Social Development 2006)1.

Cross-border health crisis hits mineworkers

Two years ago Mopeli Mofoka, 39, left his wife and child in Maseru, Lesotho's capital, and joined the more than 50,000 men pushed by poverty and unemployment in their home country to seek work on mines in neighbouring South Africa. It was his second stint as a miner the first had been 15 years earlier. This time he was hired as a sub-contractor, which meant that despite testing positive for HIV during his preliminary health screening he did not have access to the on-site health services available to mine employees. When his health began deteriorating 18 months later, he went to a local public hospital but was turned away because he lacked a South African identity document. His only option was to return home, where he is receiving treatment for tuberculosis (TB) at a government clinic run in partnership with international medical aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontires (MSF) in Morija, about 50km south of Maseru, the capital.

Policy on TB remains unchanged, says Health

The Department of Health says its policy on the treatment of Tuberculosis patients, especially those who have Multi-Drug Resistant TB (MDR-TB) and Extreme-Drug Resistant (XDR-TB), will not be changed in any way.

TB: 'Patients are the weakest link'

Nearly 50 000 people in the Western Cape are receiving treatment at provincial health facilities for tuberculosis. Of these, 450 people are being treated for the multidrug-resistant (MDR) strain and 55 for extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB, says Health MEC Marius Fransman.

New rapid tests for MDR-TB in developing countries

People in low-resource countries who are ill with multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) will get a faster diagnosis in two days, not the standard two to three months and appropriate treatment thanks to two new initiatives unveiled today by WHO, the Stop TB Partnership, UNITAID and the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND).

Namibia: Drugs for Deadly TB 'On the Way'

A month after Health Minister Dr Richard Kamwi officially announced the presence of the deadly extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in Namibia, the country has yet to start treating the first eight cases.