Sabiiti W, Azam K, Farmer ECW, et al. - As tuberculosis (TB) is among the top 10 causes of death globally, researchers sought for an effective method that may aid in identifying those who are failing on treatment and need a change in therapy or do not convert to negative early on in treatment and may need prolonged treatment period. They conducted a comparative biomarker study via analyzing 1,768 serial sputum samples from 178 patients at 4 sites in Southeast Africa. Per outcomes, tuberculosis Molecular Bacterial Load Assay (TB-MBLA) provides rapid bacillary load count, which responds to treatment in a pattern consistent with liquid culture, takes lesser time-to-result and is reproducible in various laboratory settings. Early determination of treatment response aids in querying on adherence and/or drug resistance, and recognizing cases at risk of failing treatment especially those with high bacillary load. Moreover, evaluation of the influence of comorbidities such as HIV on bacillary load clearance during treatment has been simplified by TB-MBLA. Relative to current treatment monitoring methods, microscopy is less sensitive and is unable to differentiate viable from dead bacilli and can culture with long time-to-result. TB-MBLA seems to have potentially higher utility for informing clinical decisions on individual patient management and allowing rapid evaluation of anti-TB drugs in clinical trials.