The definitive social history of tuberculosis, from its origins as a haunting mystery to its modern reemergence that now threatens populations around the world. It killed novelist George Orwell, Eleanor Roosevelt, and millions of others-rich and poor. Desmond Tutu, Amitabh Bachchan, and Nelson Mandela survived it, just. For centuries, tuberculosis has ravaged cities and plagued the human body. In Phantom Plague, Vidya Krishnan, traces the history of tuberculosis from the slums of 19th-century New York to modern Mumbai. In a narrative spanning century, Krishnan shows how superstition and folk-remedies, made way for scientific understanding of TB, such that it was controlled and cured in the West. The cure was never available to black and brown nations. And the tuberculosis bacillus showed a remarkable ability to adapt-so that at the very moment it could have been extinguished as a threat to humanity, it found a way back, aided by authoritarian government, toxic kindness of philanthropists, science denialism and medical apartheid. Krishnan's original reporting paints a granular portrait of the post-antibiotic era as a new, aggressive, drug resistant strain of TB takes over. Phantom Plague is an urgent, riveting and fascinating narrative that deftly exposes the weakest links in our battle against this ancient foe.

Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death globally, particularly among children and young adults. The spread of new pathogens and the threat of antimicrobial resistance pose particular challenges in combating these diseases. Major Infectious Diseases identifies feasible, cost-effective packages of interventions and strategies across delivery platforms to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria, adult febrile illness, viral hepatitis, and neglected tropical diseases. The volume emphasizes the need to effectively address emerging antimicrobial resistance, strengthen health systems, and increase access to care. The attainable goals are to reduce incidence, develop innovative approaches, and optimize existing tools in resource-constrained settings.

The book addresses the issue of disease diffusion across the geographical span of India during the colonial period. Based on archival records, it analyses colonial economic policies and their implications for the spread of the disease across different regions of India as well as the role of the military in disease spread. It adds a new dimension to the understanding of the spread of TB in colonial India. The book also discusses the concept of the meaning of illness for different cohorts of TB patients. Based on narratives, it brings to readers the social and cultural dimensions that are responsible for the prevalence of the disease, despite having vaccination and medication available for more than half a century. The book will be beneficial to health and medical geographers and will bring new insights in historical geography as well as the history of medicine, by incorporating policy changes and their implication in disease spread. Sociologists and public health professionals will find narratives of patients interesting and useful for furthering their understanding.

This 2011 update of Guidelines for the programmatic management of drug-resistant tuberculosis is intended as a tool for use by public health professionals working in response to the Sixty-second World Health Assembly's resolution on prevention and control of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis. Resolution WHA62.15, adopted in 2009, calls on Member States to develop a comprehensive framework for the management and care of patients with drug-resistant TB. The recommendations contained in these guidelines address the most topical questions concerning the programmatic management of drug-resistant TB: case-finding, multidrug resistance, treatment regimens, monitoring the response to treatment, and selecting models of care. The guidelines primarily target staff and medical practitioners working in TB treatment and control, and partners and organizations providing technical and financial support for care of drug-resistant TB in settings where resources are limited.

Between 2011 and 2019, WHO has developed and issued evidence-based policy recommendations on the treatment and care of patients with DR-TB. These policy recommendations have been presented in several WHO documents and their associated annexes, including the WHO Consolidated Guidelines on Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment, issued by WHO in March 2019. The policy recommendations in each of these guidelines have been developed by WHO-convened Guideline Development Groups, using the GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach to summarize the evidence, and formulate policy recommendations and accompanying remarks. The present WHO Consolidated Guidelines on Tuberculosis, Module 4: Treatment - Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis Treatment includes a comprehensive set of WHO recommendations for the treatment and care of DR-TB. The document includes two new recommendations, one on the composition of shorter regimens and one on the use of the BPaL regimen (i.e. bedaquiline, pretomanid and linezolid). In addition, the consolidated guidelines include existing recommendations on treatment regimens for isoniazid-resistant TB and MDR/RR-TB, including longer regimens, culture monitoring of patients on treatment, the timing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in MDR/RR-TB patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the use of surgery for patients receiving MDR-TB treatment, and optimal models of patient support and care. The guidelines are to be used primarily in national TB programmes, or their equivalents in Ministries of Health, and for other policy-makers and technical organizations working on TB and infectious diseases in public and private sectors and in the community.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published an annual report on global control of tuberculosis (TB) every year since 1997. The main purpose of the report is to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the TB epidemic and progress made in TB care and control at global, regional and country levels. This fifteenth annual report contains more up-to-date information than any previous report in the series, following earlier data collection and the completion of the production cycle within a calendar year. This report includes the same wealth of information as previous reports in the series, but three new features are worth highlighting. First, the data are more up-to-date than those included in previous reports. Data up to and including 2009 are presented for almost all key indicators; financial data extend to 2011. Second, results from several analyses undertaken for the first time in 2010 are included. Examples are: (i) for each of the 22 high-burden countries (HBCs), trends in rates of TB incidence and mortality since 1990 combined with projections of whether the target of halving the 1990 mortality rate by 2015 will be achieved; (ii) estimates of the lives saved by TB control between 1995 and 2009 and projections of the additional lives that could be saved up to 2015, including separate estimates for women and children; (iii) assessment of progress in implementing and financing TB care and control against the targets included in a just-released and updated version of the Global Plan to Stop TB; and (iv) a new and compelling compilation of data showing the contribution that PP PP M can make to case detection. Third, country profiles are available for all countries (rather than the 22 HBCs only) and can be downloaded online at www.who.int/tb/data, always drawing on the latest data available in WHO s global TB database. Annex 1 explains the methods that were used to produce estimates of disease burden. Annex 2 contains summary tables that provide global, regional and country-specific data for the main indicators of interest. Country profiles for all countries are available online at www.who.int/tb/data; their content is advertised in Annex 3.