Another Financial Times article looks at the South African government's plan to provide antiretroviral (ARV) drugs to "all TB/HIV co-infected patients." According to the newspaper, "Some 70 percent of people treated for TB in South Africa are also HIV-positive. The introduction of earlier-stage HIV treatment should help prevent those with latent TB from developing the full-blown disease" (O'Connor, 3/23). A second article about TB in South Africa reports on efforts by the health ministry toward "greater vigilance - and resources - to trace and treat every new case of [TB] infection." It also reports on efforts by other groups, such as the Anglo American mining group and the South African TB Vaccine Initiative, to control the disease (O'Connor, 3/23).

The series includes an article about TB control in China. The newspaper writes: "China provides a demonstration of just how hard it is to tackle tuberculosis in the developing world. The country has many of the prerequisites for constructing an effective strategy for treatment and prevention. It has a relatively well-organised health system and a long history of aggressive action against infectious disease. ... Yet despite all these efforts, it still faces an uphill struggle to control the disease" (Dyer, 3/23).

Another article reports on TB efforts in Brazil. "In its 2009 report on global TB control, Brazil ranks 14th on the World Health Organization's list of 22 countries that account for 80 percent of cases worldwide. The WHO estimates there were about 92,000 new cases in 2007 with an estimated incidence of 48 per 100,000 population." In addition, "TB is now the number one killer of people with HIV/AIDS in the country" (Wheatley, 3/23).

Media Outlets Examines TB In Countries Worldwide

Agence France-Presse  writes, "India's government has said its free diagnosis and treatment programme, which monitors patients to make sure they take the right drugs in the right doses at the right time, has led to a marked cut in prevalence and mortality rates." But according to Zarir Udwadia, a doctor in Mumbai, the country's 110,000 patients with drug-resistant forms of the disease might be falling through the cracks. "The government fears that if drug-resistant TB takes hold it threatens to jeopardise the progress made in tackling the disease. As a result, it is widening its DOTS (directly observed treatment short-course) programme" (3/24).

The Daily Monitor examines drug-resistant TB in Uganda. "According to Dr. Grace Muzanye, a TB specialist with the Centre for Disease Control, although there are no precise figures on the numbers of drug-resistant TB, at least 10 percent of the 40,000 new cases recorded in 2008 were found to have strains that are resistant to drugs." The article reports on the lack of surveillance of drug-resistant TB in the country and the high cost of treating it (Lirri/Wandera, 3/24).

"Although Pakistan has made considerable achievements in the domain of TB control, evidence suggests that it still needs to expedite efforts to achieve better results. TB continues to be a major public health problem in the country, which ranks 8th among high-burden TB countries. With an estimated 300,000 new cases of TB every year, Pakistan contributes about 55 percent of the TB burden in the Eastern Mediterranean Region," the News International writes in a story focusing on TB control in Pakistan (Maqbool, 3/24).

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