Curing tuberculosis (TB) entails adhering to a multidrug regimen for ⩾6 months [1]. Failure to take the medications as prescribed can lead to treatment failure, drug resistance and further spread of TB, resulting in morbidity and death for the patient and a threat to public health. Treatment failure is the most important cause of drug-resistant TB, which is much more long, expensive and toxic t...

Global Tuberculosis (TB) report (2013) has revealed that an estimated 8.6 million people developed TB of which, India accounts for almost 26% of the cases. These estimates clearly suggest that the country's efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goal 6 by 2015 have not delivered the desired output. In India, the TB prevention and control activities are supervised and implemented under the Re...

Despite policies, strategies, and guidelines, the epidemic of HIV-associated tuberculosis continues to rage, particularly in southern Africa. We focus our attention on the regions with the greatest burden of disease, especially sub-Saharan Africa, and concentrate on prevention of tuberculosis in people with HIV infection, a challenge that has been greatly neglected. We argue for a much more agg...

BACKGROUND The current tuberculosis (TB) treatment landscape has been studied extensively, but researchers rarely consider how it creates challenges or opportunities for future regimen change. METHODS In 166 stakeholder interviews in the TB high-burden countries (HBCs), we investigated areas of first-line TB treatment and control that would affect, and be affected by, a future TB regimen chan...

The success of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV infection, though widespread and resounding, has been limited by inadequate adherence to its unforgiving regimens, especially over the long term. This article summarizes the literature on behavioral interventions to promote ART adherence and highlights some of the most recent and innovative research on patient education and case management, mo...

UNLABELLED Background In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 23% of HIV-infected patients are nonadherent. The objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of adherence-enhancing interventions for active antiretroviral therapy (ART) in HIV-infected patients in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS A systematic literature search was performed with the following inclusion criteria: adult HIV patients treated...

BACKGROUND The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that tuberculosis (TB) patients receive directly observed therapy (DOT). Randomized controlled trials have not consistently shown that this practice improves TB treatment success rates. In Thailand, one of 22 WHO-designated high burden TB countries, patients may have TB treatment observed by a health care worker (HCW), family member, or ...