Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a major health challenge across much of Africa, but a new medicine being pioneered in South Africa could be a breakthrough after decades of frustration. Bedaquiline is being made available to 3,000 people suffering side effects of the usual drug-resistant tuberculosis treatment, or who have developed complete drug resistance.

The early signs are encouraging, doctors say, though bedaquiline hasn't yet been tested in large-scale clinical trials. The new drug -- one of the first new tuberculosis antibiotics released in 40 years -- was first given to 217 South African patients as part of an early access programme. Jennifer Hughes, a 36-year-old British doctor in Cape Town, said she has seen the benefits. Already, word has spread at Hughes's clinic in Khayelitsha, a poor township, and people are coming from all over the city requesting the new drug, developed by US-based pharmaceutical company Janssen…