BACKGROUND In tuberculosis (TB) endemic parts of the world, patients with pulmonary symptoms are managed as "smear-negative TB patients" if they do not improve on a two-week presumptive, broad-spectrum course of antibiotic treatment even if they are TB microscopy smear negative. These patients are frequently HIV positive and have a higher mortality than smear-positive TB patients. Lack of acces...

Almeida et al. (1) have interrogated the genomes of two Pneumocystis species, Pneumocystis jirovecii and its sister Pneumocystis carinii, for genes known to be involved in sexual reproduction in the widely studied fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, with the hope that defining genetic pathways governing sexual reproduction in Pneumocystis will inform disease prevention strategies. Pneumocy...