New rapid test for drug resistant TB

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — A new test to screen for drug-resistant tuberculosis will greatly help the fight against the disease in developing countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

The test, which involves examining DNA in the saliva of sick people, will provide a diagnosis within two days instead of the usual two to three months.

"It is a major revolution in TB control," the director of the WHO's TB campaign Mario Raviglione said at a news conference in Geneva.

In developing countries most TB patients are tested for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) only after they fail to respond to standard treatments.

Patients have to wait months for the results before they can receive life-saving treatment. During this period they can spread...

Premium Content Partnership | MyWire provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works. MyWire

 

BNET TalkbackShare your ideas and expertise on this topic

Please add your comment:

  1. You are currently: a Guest |
  2.  

Basic HTML tags that work in comments are: bold (<b></b>), italic (<i></i>), underline (<u></u>), and hyperlink (<a href></a)