Nipah virus outbreak exposes the chinks in Kerala’s health-care armour
If Kerala was taken by surprise last year by the first outbreak of Nipah virus infection, its recurrence this year strongly suggests that the virus is in circulation in fruit…
Category: Contact screening
A glimmer of hope as India’s war on TB gets more funding
There is a glimmer of hope with India registering a slight drop in the number of new tuberculosis cases and TB deaths in 2016 compared with 2015. From an estimated…
A looming threat of tuberculosis in children
The RNTCP guidelines on contact screening are heeded mostly in the breach. About 5,500 of over 76,000 children tested in nine Indian cities have been diagnosed with tuberculosis, 9% of…
MDR-TB spreads less within households
Unlike people with drug-susceptible TB, those with multi drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) are less likely to transmit disease to others living in the same household (also known as household contacts), a…
Childhood TB: symptom-based contact screening safe, reliable
From total neglect till a few years ago, childhood TB is now taking centrestage. A couple of days back, the WHO released an updated guidance for national TB programmes…
‘Nuances of childhood TB are never taught in medical schools’
If diagnosing tuberculosis in children, particularly those aged under five years, is fraught with problems, health-care workers at different levels who are unaware of the latest advancements in childhood TB…
Child-friendly, first-line TB combination drugs will be available in 2016: Dr. Mel Spigelman
Dr. Mel Spigelman, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts in tuberculosis and…
Second-line TB drugs: ‘It is more difficult to assess adverse effects in children’
Prof. H. Simon Schaaf, a clinical researcher from the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Desmond Tutu TB Centre, Stellenbosch University, South Africa has worked…
