Tuberculosis

South Africa has no reliable statistics on HIV/Aids on which to base any plan to fight the pandemic decimating the population.

Tuberculosis, influenza and pneumonia, and cerebrovascular diseases emerged as the leading causes of death amongst South Africans from a study of death notification forms.

Mpumalanga is a fraction away from being declared a World Health Organisation (WHO) hot spot for multi-drug resistant TB.

The risk of developing tuberculosis doubles within the first year of testing HIV positive, according to a large retrospective study published in the January 15th issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases. This risk further increased in subsequent years.

FIND (Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics) and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) announced an international collaboration aimed at improving diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-infected patients in developing countries.

HIV-positive patients receiving treatment for tuberculosis (TB) do not interrupt TB treatment more frequently than HIV-negative patients, although highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) does increase the incidence of side-effects, according to a case note review of patients at a London hospital. These findings were presented this week at the Seventh International Congress on Drug Therapy in HIV Infection in Glasgow.

The publication of an international study shows that six months of continuation phase treatment with isoniazid and ethambutol results in higher rates of relapse after treatment when compared to a four month continuation phase using isoniazid and rifampicin. The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease and the United Kingdom Medical Research Council designed the study.

No one dies of AIDS. This is not denialism. The truth is that the AIDS virus does not kill you it simply degrades your immune system so that something else does.

As many as half a million lives could be saved every year in Africa if governments combine their approach to tackle a rampant AIDS epidemic with measures to treat tuberculosis, health experts said on Tuesday.

The First TB vaccine human trials are due to start in Worcester South Africa in October 2004.