South Africa is suffering from an onslaught of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB). The issue has become so severe that experts from the World Health Organization (WHO), and health ministers and scientists from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) came together in Pretoria to find measures to combat the spread. HIV is widely spread in this region and as those affected by HIV are more likely to succumb to tuberculosis. Experts are trying to formulate a plan whereby diagnosis and treatment can be much quicker. Most of the XDR-TB cases have been detected in the KwaZulu-Natal Province on the east coast.
Meanwhie, scientists from Imperial College London, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford, and other international institutions collaborated on a research that has helped to understand the way in which the body stimulates the immune system against tuberculosis. The scientists demonstrated that the receptor CCR5 signals the immune cells to attack Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of TB. The scientists hope that this finding will one day lead to the development of a vaccine or immunotherapy that would perform the function of the receptor and stimulate the immune system against the bacteria.
Collaborations definitely seem to be an effective way to achieve success even in the field of medicine. Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Imperial College London, Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Peru and other institutions have come up with a new test that can diagnose TB in a simpler and faster way. The test has been named microscopic-observation drug-susceptibility or MODS. When tested on 3,760 sputums, MODS proved to be sensitive and also produced results in an average time of seven days. Also, the test is much cheaper than the current culture-based one and is expected to be a boon for developing countries.
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