A US study has shown that, alone among Aids-

defining infections, TB has not become less common since 1996. A Spanish study has shown that TB/HIV co-infected patients with CD4 counts under 100 are much more likely than others to develop multi-drug-resistant TB. And a New York study says that HIV/TB co-infected patients are four times more likely to fail their therapy, and recommends TB treatment should be maintained for as long as a year.

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How chlamydia does its damage
Researchers have discovered how the chlamydia bug - the second most common sexually transmitted infection - causes severe damage in some people while causing no symptoms in others. Untreated chlamydia can cause pelvic inflammatory disease, which is a major cause of infertility in women, and has even recently been implicated in heart disease. It also increases the infectiousness of people with HIV. Now scientists have discovered that chlamydia produces a toxin - a poison - which kills cells and causes inflammation. It is very similar to the one produced by the gut bug Clostridium, which causes chronic diarrhoea. The toxin could not only be the target of drugs and vaccines but could be picked up in a cheap test for asymptomatic

chlamydia.