Healthcare workers in South Africa are at a significantly increased risk of developing drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, in a trend which threatens to further exacerbate the already beleaguered healthcare systems in sub-Saharan countries

U.S. researchers said on Thursday that two existing drugs used in combination appear to offer great promise against the most dangerous form of tuberculosis.

New research on drug-resistant tuberculosis found that the hard-to-treat disease results in death for half of patients who get it.

Aggressive treatment involving a combination of drugs may be the cure for extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, researchers report.

Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, or XDR-TB, can be commuted in an individualized outpatient therapy program, researchers in Peru said.