CONCERN is mounting over a new strain of extra-deadly TB that arose in South Africa and could already be spreading elsewhere. But before you panic, help may be at hand: an international research collaboration has just signed a deal with China to develop a promising new class of TB drugs that should attack the strain, while two more types could be in final tests by later this year.
Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) was first recognised last March. While strains of TB that resist the two most commonly used drugs have been emerging for years, XDR resists even the back-up drugs,…
