Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Wakiso district health authorities are predicting trouble time in the fight against Tuberculosis as leading implementing partners are limiting their activities and slash funding. Tuberculosis, which is a serious infectious disease that mainly affects your lungs, has been a major public health problem in …
Read More »In South Africa, newly approved TB regimen drastically cuts treatment time
Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | Four years ago, South African fashion designer Innocent Molefe, 38, was diagnosed with tuberculosis. A year ago, it developed into multi-drug resistant strain requiring painful injections and heaps of pills. Three months after the first round of treatment, he relapsed and started a second round. At the …
Read More »Misdiagnosis, low case detection hurting pediatric TB treatment
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Misdiagnosis and low case detection among children is hindering Tuberculosis treatment in Ntungamo district, according to health authorities. Children are a soft landing spot for Tuberculosis once exposed due to low immunity. However, the challenge is worsened by misdiagnosis with most of the infected …
Read More »One-stop clinics, a rare lifesaver for Zimbabwe’s sick
Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Blessing Chingwaru could barely walk without support when he arrived at the specialist Rutsanana clinic in Harare complaining of chest pains and fatigue. Weighing a skeletal 37 kilogrammes (5.8 stone), the HIV-positive motor mechanic knew something was wrong. He was immediately given a number of …
Read More »Ministry of Health launches plan to prevent TB in people living with HIV
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A new plan aimed at preventing Tuberculosis among Persons Living with HIV has been launched in Kampala. The plan will see Persons Living with HIV introduced to Isoniazid Preventive Treatment-IPT, to purposely stop the development of TB or treat any undiagnosed TB in their …
Read More »Gov’t asked to integrate Hepatitis, HIV treatment
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Civil Society Organizations from over 25 countries have called for governments in Africa to integrate treatment and prevention programmes for Hepatitis into other health programmes like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis that are proving to be a success. They pointed out that Prevention of Mother to Child …
Read More »Drug-resistant TB
A new study offers new hope | Andrew Nunn and I.D. Rusen | Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death in the world from a single infectious disease, causing more deaths than HIV/AIDS. In 2017, 10 million people developed TB disease globally and an estimated 1.6 million died. One …
Read More »New TB test could save hundreds of thousands of children: scientists
The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Scientists on Thursday unveiled a revolutionary way of screening children for tuberculosis, which they say will prevent hundreds of thousands each year from contracting the world’s deadliest infectious disease. A multinational team based at the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation in The Hague have developed a …
Read More »‘Game changer’ tuberculosis drug cures 8 in 10
Paris, France | AFP | A new treatment for a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis can cure 80 percent of sufferers, according to a trial hailed Monday as a “game changer” in the fight against the global killer. Doctors in Belarus — a country with one of the highest rates of …
Read More »World’s first malaria vaccine
Children aged five to 17 months old in Kenya, Ghana, Malawi to test it Ghana, Kenya and Malawi have been chosen to test the world’s first malaria vaccine through a pilot program beginning next year, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on April 24. The vaccine, which has partial effectiveness …
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