A pain in the foot and a serious complication.
Reprinted with the kind permission of the Royal Society of Medicine. First printed in J R Soc Med 2007;100:284-285 This case highlights the need for doctors to be aware of tuberculosis (TB) as a cause of monarthritis and highlights the potential for serious complications to occur if...

Another kid dies after vaccination.
Byline: Madhavi Rajadhyaksha MUMBAI: A two-month-old died this week after taking the BCG (Bacille Calmette Guerin) vaccine, given to prevent childhood tuberculosis, TOI has learnt. The yet-to-be-named infant, the son of Chembur Naka resident Geeta Mane, was administered the BCG vaccine at a health post...

TB wonder drug that shortens treatment span to be tested.
Byline: Kounteya Sinha NEW DELHI: India may soon be part of an international trial to look at whether the drug Moxifloxacin actually increases cure rate and helps shorten the duration of treatment for tuberculosis patients. Belonging to a class of drugs called fluoroquinolone antibiotics, Moxifloxacin...

Govt to club AIDS, TB-control drives.
Byline: Kounteya Sinha NEW DELHI: Tuberculosis is the biggest killer of HIV patients in India. According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco), over 60% of HIV patients contract and ultimately die of TB. Faced with this double blow, India has now integrated the national...

Ranbaxy, Biotech Department in new drug discovery deal.
MUMBAI: Ranbaxy Laboratories has entered into a research agreement with the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi, in the area of new drug discovery research. The research will be conducted under the aegis of Department of Biotechnology's major initiative in the area of tuberculosis. Three major areas identified...

Govt plans grants to pvt cos to cure neglected diseases.
Byline: Niranjan Bharati NEW DELHI: The government may soon give non-repayable grant-in-aid to pharmaceutical companies for inventing new drugs for neglected tropical diseases like tuberculosis, kala-azar, leprosy, malaria and filariasis. This is in addition to the existing support given to research by private companies. Presently,...

Smoking major cause of TB deaths.
Byline: Vasundhara Sanger MUMBAI: Taking cue from last week's WHO warning about tuberculosis (TB) killing 1.7 mn people in India and China in 2006 alone, anti-tobacco campaigners once again reinforced that smoking was the main cause for spreading tuberculosis and causing deaths. Says Dr. P...

India is world's TB capital.
Byline: Kounteya Sinha NEW DELHI: Over six lakh Indians, unaware that they suffer from tuberculosis, are spreading the disease among healthy individuals, seriously jeopardizing global efforts to halve new infection and death rates before 2015. India is the world's TB capital recording an estimated 1.9...

Extensively drug-resistant TB: coming to a location near you.
KEYSTONE, COLO. -- Epidemiologic trends indicate that American physicians will increasingly encounter extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis in coming years, Dr. Charles L. Daley said at a meeting on allergy and respiratory disease sponsored by the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, Denver. In the mid-1990s, TB in the...

The quarantine quandary.
When globetrotting groom Andrew Speaker was discovered to be carrying tuberculosis (TB) germs in May 2007, virtually no one questioned that the state should and could protect us from him. Apparently, healthy citizens suddenly lose their rights upon becoming ill; contagious folks who disobey public-health officials may be forcibly...