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Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most deadly infectious diseases in the world. Each year, it kills 1.6 million people, with another nine million suffering from the disease, mainly in developing countries.
TB is the major killer of people living with HIV in Africa. Almost half a million people develop multi drug-resistant strains of the disease every year.
A doctor in the hospital of Takeo, Cambodia explains to the mother of a patient how her daughter should use her medicines.
© Dieter Telemans
TB infections
TB is highly infectious and spreads mainly through the air.
Coughing, sneezing, talking and spitting by an infected person can all spread the bacteria and it can remain in the air for several hours before being inhaled by another person.
TB is particularly common amongst young children, who have immature immune systems, and adults with lowered immune systems, such as those infected with HIV.
Diagnosing TB
The most commonly available diagnostic tests are outdated and fail to detect a substantial proportion of infections.
The latest tests are not available for use in developing countries due to high cost and the expertise required to perform them.
TB treatment
Treatment is long and, if interrupted, can lead to the development of drug-resistant TB, a more difficult infection to treat. Where TB is resistant to most of the routine TB drugs, second-line drugs are needed.
These are very expensive, have many side effects, require a much longer course of treatment and often have worse outcomes. Most patients in developing countries do not have access to these drugs.
MSF has been fighting TB for over 30 years. In 2006, MSF offered treatment in 100 projects spread over 44 countries. Our teams admitted more than 24,000 new patients, and diagnosed and referred even more to local health services for treatment.
MSF provides treatment for TB in many different contexts, from chronic conflict situations as in southern Sudan to vulnerable patients in stable settings, such as Uzbekistan and Chechnya. In many places where we work, supervising all TB patients during their treatment is difficult or impossible. So to help patients complete their treatment, MSF has introduced more flexible strategies.
In the field, MSF doctors are constantly frustrated by the lack of adequate medical tools. In response, Médecins Sans Frontières set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to improve access to existing medical tools and to stimulate the development of urgently needed better tools. MSF Access Campaign.
MSF is well known for its humanitarian medical work, but it has also produced important research based on its field experience with vulnerable populations. This website archives MSF's scientific articles and makes them available free, with full text, and in an easily searchable format. MSF Field Research website.
For 40 years, MSF has directly witnessed the human cost of the lack of drugs for neglected diseases and has raised its voice against this inequity. In 2003, seven organisations from around the world joined forces to establish DNDi, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative.