Tuberculosis

Research from South Africa, Vietnam informs updates to WHO’s MDR-TB prevention guidelines.

Des recherches menées en Afrique du Sud et au Viêtnam permettent d'actualiser les directives de l'OMS en matière de prévention de la tuberculose multirésistante.

All eyes on what could be the first new vaccine in a century

Tous les regards se tournent vers ce qui pourrait être le premier nouveau vaccin depuis un siècle

Population-level research identified resistance mutations that evade standard tests.

La recherche au niveau de la population a identifié des mutations de résistance qui échappent aux tests standard.

Bovine TB found in human samples for first time in country

La tuberculose bovine est détectée dans des échantillons humains pour la première fois dans le pays.

Algorithm is better than the human ear at distinguishing between similar cough frequencies

L'algorithme est plus performant que l'oreille humaine pour distinguer des fréquences de toux similaires.

Tuberculosis is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, with over 25% of these occurring in the African region. Multi-drug resistant strains which do not respond to first-line antibiotics continue to emerge, putting at risk numerous public health strategies which aim to reduce incidence and mortality. Here, we speak with Professor Valerie Mizrahi, world-leading researcher and former director of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town, regarding the tuberculosis burden in South Africa. We discuss the challenges faced by researchers, the lessons that need to be learnt and current innovations to better understand the overall response required to accelerate progress.

Campos-Pardos et al show that the virulence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is dependent on sufficient uptake of exogenous vitamin B12 from host serum and this phenotype is not conserved in environmental, opportunistic and ancestral lineages.

Tuberculosis is a major global health issue. Here the authors report Mycobacterium-pre-activated macrophage membrane-coated photothermal nanoparticles for targeted tuberculous granuloma and pathogen dual imaging and antibacterial photothermal therapy.

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is resistant to several first-line drugs. MDR-TB is an increasing public health challenge. In this Primer, Dheda et al. summarize the epidemiology and mechanisms, and discuss diagnosis, management and quality of life of patients with MDR-TB.

Treatments for tuberculosis have markedly improved in recent years, but lung disease caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is on the rise and lacks effective cures. This Review discusses promising small-molecule drug candidates and innovative clinical trial designs and highlights how lessons from tuberculosis therapeutic development can be applied to NTM disease.

In this Review, Pai and colleagues examine the global landscape of drug-resistant tuberculosis, exploring its epidemiology, causes, risk factors, stigma and associated mental health burden as well as discussing the most recent developments in diagnostics, treatment and preventive regimens.