HARARE: (PlusNews) - By the time Tichaona Paraziva, 49, tested HIV positive at the end of 2006 he was already in need of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but there was a waiting list for the free government programme and on a teacher's salary he could not afford to buy medicines in the private sector.

KAMPALA: (PlusNews) - About half of Uganda's TB patients do not know that they could be infected, which has led to very low levels of diagnosis and treatment.

JOHANNESBURG: (PlusNews) - In April 2009 the South African government will start rolling out a new test to diagnose multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), of which 16,000 cases were reported in 2007 alone. Doctors are hoping that the new rapid tests will get more patients on treatment and faster.

JOHANNESBURG: (PlusNews) - One in four tuberculosis (TB) deaths in the world is HIV-related, twice as many as previously thought, according to a new report by the World Health Organisation (WHO).