Professor Salome Charalambous

And luckily, there have been new diagnostic tests that have now come out that are better than that.

And they have been rolled out in most parts of the world.

But it's

It's been quite an expensive test.

And so we're still finding that only about 60% of all people who are diagnosed with TB are being diagnosed with the right test.

And part of the reason is because of the cost of the test and the difficulties with getting those tests into the poorer countries, which are the countries that have TB.

But more recently and very, very recently, we're actually expecting WHO to come out with a guideline for a brand new test that has just been found that has been a lot cheaper than the previous test.

And we are hoping that that will improve the diagnosis.

And how we diagnose TB is through sputum.

So people cough and then that's sputum.

So it sounds horrible.

That gets tested for TB.

phlegm right is that kind of the better way to say that we call it sputum but yes it's phlegm basically but this new test that has just come out is actually using a lot of the technology that came out of COVID and it's actually using a mouth swab so do you remember when we used to have the nasal swabs for COVID it's actually using a mouth swab

And it's able to do the test in clinics.

So it doesn't require a laboratory infrastructure for the test.

And so everyone's very excited about this.

But like I say, WHO hasn't actually even released the guideline yet around that.

But everyone's getting very excited and the test is being produced and lots of plans are underway to actually start rolling out that test in many different countries.

So currently, how is TB typically treated?

Unfortunately, a regimen that has up to four drugs and is taken for as long as six months and has many side effects.