A new approach to combating tuberculosis, or TB, has been announced by UN health experts, who say the mobile phone and the internet are potential key tools in the fight against the killer disease.

Under proposals by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partner the European Respiratory Society (ERS), national governments will be encouraged to use so-called “digital health” solutions to share life-saving information about TB with medical staff.

This should make identification and treatment of the disease much quicker and more thorough, and hopefully reduce the more than 1.5 million people killed by TB annually, as WHO’s Dr Mario Raviglione explained to Daniel Johnson.

Duration: 3’10”