Fruit-flavored drugs to cut child TB deaths

Children will be more likely to survive tuberculosis, the world's most deadly infectious disease, once new strawberry-flavored and raspberry-flavored medicines are available early next year, experts said on Wednesday.

TB killed 140,000 children and 1.37 million adults last year and infected a further 1 million children, according to the World Health Organization, but a lack of market incentives has hindered the development of drugs for children, the TB Alliance campaign group said.

Many children with TB do not complete their treatment because they have to take several bitter-tasting medicines every day for at least six months. The dosage is often imprecise as parents have to cut and crush adult-sized drugs for their children.