{"id":11713,"date":"2026-03-25T18:25:53","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=11713"},"modified":"2026-03-25T18:25:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:25:58","slug":"truly-transformative-new-diagnostic-tools-can-help-end-tuberculosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2026\/03\/25\/truly-transformative-new-diagnostic-tools-can-help-end-tuberculosis\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Truly transformative\u2019 new diagnostic tools can help end tuberculosis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2026\/03\/1167190\">UN<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>TB is caused by bacteria that most often&nbsp;affects&nbsp;the lungs.&nbsp;&nbsp;<strong>Every day, over 3,300 people die from the disease,&nbsp;with Southeast Asia accounting for&nbsp;<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/southeastasia\/news\/detail\/24-03-2026-world-tb-day\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"nearly 40 per cent of deaths, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>nearly 40 per cent of deaths<\/strong><\/a>. Yet&nbsp;it is&nbsp;both&nbsp;preventable and treatable,&nbsp;including by&nbsp;using&nbsp;the antibiotic&nbsp;rifampicin.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.who.int\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"WHO, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WHO<\/a>&nbsp;has&nbsp;issued&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/teams\/global-programme-on-tuberculosis-and-lung-health\/diagnosis-treatment\/npoc-tongue-swabs-and-sputum-pooling-for-tb\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"new guidelines, opens in a new window\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">new guidelines<\/a>&nbsp;on&nbsp;testing, recommending that countries&nbsp;deploy&nbsp;innovations such as new near-point-of-care molecular diagnostic tests and tongue swabs, both of which can help with faster detection.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Fast&nbsp;and&nbsp;accurate&nbsp;diagnosis<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The tests cost half the price of&nbsp;those currently available,&nbsp;operate&nbsp;on battery&nbsp;power&nbsp;and deliver results in less than an hour, meaning that treatment can begin sooner.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tongue swabs allow adults and young people who cannot produce sputum to receive TB testing for the first time.&nbsp;&nbsp;Specimens can therefore&nbsp;be easily collected, thus enabling detection among people who are at an increased risk of dying from the disease.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.un.org\/en\/story\/2026\/03\/1167190\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UN TB is caused by bacteria that most often&nbsp;affects&nbsp;the lungs.&nbsp;&nbsp;Every day, over 3,300 people die from the disease,&nbsp;with Southeast Asia accounting for&nbsp;nearly 40 per cent of deaths. Yet&nbsp;it is&nbsp;both&nbsp;preventable and treatable,&nbsp;including by&nbsp;using&nbsp;the antibiotic&nbsp;rifampicin.&nbsp; WHO&nbsp;has&nbsp;issued&nbsp;new guidelines&nbsp;on&nbsp;testing, recommending that countries&nbsp;deploy&nbsp;innovations such as new near-point-of-care molecular diagnostic tests and tongue swabs, both of which can help with faster [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-tech"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11714,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11713\/revisions\/11714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}