Tuberculosis: An Old Killer Proving Difficult To Best

In 2015, the number of tuberculosis (TB) attributed deaths totalled 1.5 million, outnumbering the 1.2 million deaths due to HIV. While this represents a 47% fall in mortality from TB since 1990, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the vast majority of deaths that occurred were preventable, which is problematic given the estimated 9.6 million new cases of TB in 2015 alone.

Tuberculosis is a contagious airborne disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is largely a respiratory infection and up to a third of the world’s population may be latent...