Overview
- India, which launched a 100-day TB drive Tuesday, will deploy about 2,000 AI-enabled handheld X-rays to screen 1.58 lakh high-risk villages and urban wards.
- The World Health Organization issued new guidance Tuesday urging scale-up of near point-of-care molecular tests that run on batteries and give results in under an hour, plus tongue swabs to reach people who cannot produce sputum.
- Pakistan restated its heavy TB burden at roughly 669,000 people a year with about 51,000 deaths, and officials pressed for more domestic funding despite expanded molecular testing at more than 562 GeneXpert sites.
- In Mumbai, 2025 TB cases fell to 54,390 from 60,633 a year earlier, yet recent tallies still average 149 new infections a day as the city expands CBNAAT and TruNAAT testing and rolls out the shorter BPaLM regimen with better outcomes.
- Experts and officials said lasting gains will require steady home-grown financing and action on poverty, malnutrition and overcrowding that drive spread and keep many patients undiagnosed.