Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is a disease of increasing importance. Patients spread the disease by coughing which produces aerosols containing the M. bacteria. Persons that have close contact with these patients may inhale these micro droplets and thus become infected. The mycobacteria multiply in the lung and cause disease in around 10% of the infected people. For HIV positive persons the risk of developing active TB, if they are infected, is much greater. Annually over three million people die from TB and up to one third of the world population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Mortality is highest in the tropics, where over three-quarters of cases occur. 
It is estimated that the incidence of tuberculosis worldwide and the number of cases attributable to co-existing human immune-deficiency virus (HIV) infection will increase substantially during the next decade. Most of this burden occurs among the low-income countries of the world, particularly those in South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.