Media outlets report on news surrounding HIV and tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa.

Agence France-Presse: Probe highlights risk from South Africa’s drug-resistant TB
“A long-term probe has found that South Africans with highly drug-resistant TB are ‘systematically’ discharged from hospital without being cured, placing themselves and others at risk, its authors said Friday. … Experts have long warned that patients with drug-resistant TB who are released without support have a low chance of survival — and may also infect others with the dangerous germ…” (1/16).

Reuters: South Africa risks spreading totally drug-resistant TB — study
“…Despite being treated intensively with an average of eight anti-tuberculosis drugs, many of the patients fared poorly, with high rates of treatment failure and death. Five years after treatment initiation, only 12 of the patients had favorable outcomes and 74 percent had died. … Commenting on the findings in The Lancet, Max O’Donnell from New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the United States said they should serve as an ‘urgent alarm’…” (Kelland, 1/16).

Bloomberg News: New HIV Infections in South Africa on Steady Decline, U.N. Says
“New HIV infections among South Africa’s youth fell to 160,000, or 1.4 percent of the age group, in 2012, according to a report by the United Nations agency set up to tackle AIDS…” (Mbatha, 1/17).