Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection caused by a germ called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but they can also damage other parts of the body. TB spreads through the air when a person with TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes or talks. If you think you have been exposed, you should go to your doctor for tests as soon as possible. You are more likely to get TB if you have a weak immune system.

What is Tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis (TB) is a dreaded bacterial infection. It has been known to mankind since ancient ages. It was commonly called “consumption” at the turn of the last century because of the way the disease seemed to “consume” the individual it affected.

Tuberculosis Causes

Tuberculosis Diagnosis

Tuberculosis Prevention

Tuberculosis Screening

Tuberculosis Treatment

Tuberculosis Prognosis

History of Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis in Animals

Tuberculosis Transmission

New tuberculosis technologies: importance of access in the private health sector

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

Measuring metabolic 'fluxes' could help scientists advance new tuberculosis drugs

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is incredible in that it can survive for decades within its human host. It does this by varying its diet to successfully steal nutrients from the human host including immune cells; it is known to acquire and absorb multiple carbon sources from the body during infection.

12 May 2021

Study discovers harmful inflammatory protein in patients with symptomatic tuberculosis

A pioneering study by UCL scientists has discovered the presence of a harmful inflammatory protein in patients with symptomatic tuberculosis (TB).

10 May 2021

High rates of TB in Latin American prisons constitute a “health and human rights crisis”, warns study

High rates of tuberculosis (TB) in Latin American prisons are subverting efforts to control the disease in the wider population, and constitute a "health and human rights crisis", a study warns.

5 May 2021

New findings on the support and barriers to combat TB in high-burden countries

Nine out of ten cases of tuberculosis appear in 30 identified low and middle-income countries, each of which has a national tuberculosis programme.

3 May 2021

Designing effective multidrug-resistant-TB treatments based on DNA sequencing

Globally, tuberculosis is the most common bacterial infectious disease leading to death. The pathogen causing tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has a number of peculiarities. One is that it is growing very slowly.

3 May 2021

Fighting malaria in 2021: Where are we now and where are we going?

In support of World Malaria Day, News-Medical spoke to Dr. Laurence Slutsker, an internationally recognized expert in malaria, about fighting this disease in 2021.

26 Apr 2021

Disruptions to essential health services due to COVID-19 pandemic persist in 90% of countries

The second round of a World Health Organization "pulse survey" reveals that over one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, substantial disruptions persist, with about 90% of countries still reporting one or more disruptions to essential health services, marking no substantial global change since the first survey conducted in the summer of 2020.

23 Apr 2021

Widely available HIV testing and treatment services increase life expectancy

Life expectancy among adults living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Latin America and the Caribbean has increased significantly since HIV testing and treatment services became more widely available, according to research published today in The Lancet HIV journal.

21 Apr 2021

Overwhelming evidence SARS-CoV-2 is airborne

Researchers in the United States, UK, and Canada have published a commentary challenging the suggestion that the transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may not be airborne.

18 Apr 2021

Study reveals new lineage of tuberculosis-causing bacteria in the eastern part of the continent

Mireia Coscollá, a researcher at the Institute for Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio), a joint centre of the University of Valencia and the Spanish National Research Council, has led a study on the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, one of the 10 deadliest diseases in the world, which proves the existence of a new lineage.

16 Apr 2021

Researchers unravel the molecular basis of how Mtb uses and transports an essential sugar

Tuberculosis is a devastating disease that claims over 1.5 million lives each year. The increase in TB cases that are resistant to the current antibiotics means that novel drugs to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) are urgently needed.

15 Apr 2021

New discovery offers hope for improving treatments for tuberculosis

The immune response to tuberculosis (TB) differs in adults and newborn babies due to the way immune cells use energy to kick into gear in a bid to kill the bacteria.

13 Apr 2021

Novel protein transport system mediates toxin secretion by tuberculosis pathogen

Six years ago, Michael Niederweis, Ph.D., described the first toxin ever found for the deadly pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

9 Apr 2021

Study reveals molecular mechanisms of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

A consortium of researchers from Russia, Belarus, Japan, Germany and France led by a Skoltech scientist have uncovered the way in which Mycobacterium tuberculosis survives in iron-deficient conditions by utilizing rubredoxin B, a protein from a rubredoxin family that play an important role in adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

9 Apr 2021

Purdue researchers use malaria expertise to track COVID-19 in Indiana

Scientists have been using genetics to track diseases for decades. Now, a team at Purdue University that typically tracks malaria spread in Southern and Central Africa is using its expertise to track COVID-19 in Indiana.

8 Apr 2021

Breath Analysis: How Could it Improve Healthcare and Diagnosis?

In this interview, News-Medical talks to Santi Dominguez (SD) and Michael Graz (MG), CEOs at Imspex Diagnostics and Imspex Medical respectively, about the role breath analysis has to play in healthcare and diagnosis.

From Imspex Medical 8 Apr 2021

Study highlights the importance of benzothiazole in TB treatment regimens

Tuberculosis is a serious infectious disease, which is caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, generally it affects the lungs. Tuberculosis is spread from one person to another through microscopic droplets released into the air, it can happen through coughs, speaks, sneezes, spits, laughs from the active tuberculosis patient

30 Mar 2021

DNMT3a plays a key role in regulating HSC responses to infections

Humans are born with tens of thousands of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that collectively ensure lifelong production of blood and immune cells that protect us from infections.

26 Mar 2021

Delays in TB diagnosis often exceed WHO’s recommendations, shows study

Tuberculosis remains a rare disease in the United States, but when it does occur, delays in diagnosing it often exceed recommendations by the World Health Organization, according to a new report by Harvard Medical School researchers published March 22 in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

24 Mar 2021

COVID-19 sets back TB progress by a decade, shows WHO report

More than half a million people may have died last year as a result of reductions in TB diagnosis and care, setting back progress towards ending the disease by a decade, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates.

24 Mar 2021