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The Danger of Ignoring Tuberculosis

A century or so ago, tuberculosis was everywhere. It killed babies and brides, firemen and heads of state. The colloquial term of the era, “consumption,” littered the obituary pages and underscored how ubiquitous the disease was. Tuberculosis was so pervasive it eventually consumed you.

Actually, “consumption” got its name from the severe weight loss that so many of the afflicted suffered. The other 19th-century nickname for tuberculosis was even more evocative: “the white plague,” on account of the ashen complexion of its victims.

The novelist Charles Dickens wrote of tuberculosis in 1838 as “a dread disease” which “medicine never cured,” and which “wealth never warded…

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Featured

 Maine in crisis as deadliest disease in the world spreads among residents

Health officials in Maine have confirmed three active tuberculosis (TB) cases in the Greater Portland area. While the disease has raised public concern, the Maine CDC highlighted that they are isolated and not linked to one another.

 Tuberculosis, the forgotten pandemic relying on a 100-year-old vaccine

For TB, we are relying on a 100-year-old vaccine, known as BCG (short for Bacille Calmette-Guerin), which is still one of the most widely used vaccines globally. While it protects young children from the most severe forms of TB, the vaccine seems to give much less protection for adults. The BCG vaccine, unlike COVID vaccines, is a live vaccine, meaning it contains live (but weakened) bacteria. So it can’t be given safely to people with immune suppressing conditions, like HIV, because they could get infected from it. This means its use is limited in some people who most need protection.

Articles of Interest

‘The Biggest Monster’ Is Spreading. And It’s Not the Coronavirus.

Tuberculosis kills 1.5 million people each year. Lockdowns and supply-chain disruptions threaten progress against the disease as well as H.I.V. and malaria.

A Big Misconception About the World’s Greatest Infectious Killer

The dogma that tuberculosis is lying dormant in the bodies of 2 billion people might be wrong.

After 30 years of decline, tuberculosis is rising in the U.S. again. How did we get here?

Since the pandemic’s explosion in 2020, resource diversion to COVID tracking and treatment may have allowed TB to spread unchecked.

Covid-19 Has Made Tuberculosis Even More Of A Forgotten Pandemic

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic goes well beyond the disease itself. It extends to neglected tropical diseases, as well as the so-called “big three” infectious diseases malaria, HIV/AIDS, and tuberculosis, by crowding out R&D funds and disrupting non-Covid-19 related healthcare services.

Ending TB Is Within Reach — So Why Are Millions Still Dying?

Tuberculosis has passed Covid as the top infectious disease killer, despite new medicines and better diagnostic tools.

Fighting Fire With Fire: Can We Kill Super-Resistant Mycobacteria With Viruses?

While new antibiotics such as bedaquiline, delamanid and pretomanid have been discovered, DR-TB continues to be very hard to manage. There is a desperate need for new and alternative therapies. One such alternative might be killing TB bacteria with viruses that destroy bacteria (i.e. bacteriophages).

The deadliest infectious disease is becoming drug-resistant

TB is currently the deadliest infectious disease, responsible for 1.6 million deaths last year, most of them in the developing world. And that’s not the scariest part. A rapidly growing number of patients are developing drug-resistant tuberculosis, which kills more people than any other drug-resistant pathogen.

Tuberculosis kills thousands of people every day – we aren’t doing enough to stop it

For most people in the West, TB seems to be a disease of the past, when it was still called consumption, and the ill were sent to sanitariums in the mountains or desert. But TB hasn’t gone away.

We Now Have a Chance to Stop the Most Deadly Infectious Disease — if We Act

In a place with one of the highest TB rates on earth, I saw that the disease could be stopped with the new tools available. And still more are coming. Clinical trials of five TB vaccines with promising early results are now underway. After decades without major advances, we now have a steady stream of innovations. But they won’t matter unless the world commits to deploying them.

A Big Misconception About the World’s Greatest Infectious Killer

The dogma that tuberculosis is lying dormant in the bodies of 2 billion people might be wrong.

A Lot Of People Think This Disease Is Extinct, But It’s A Top 10 Killer Globally

TB follows heart disease, stroke, lower respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a top global killer.

Could a Tuberculosis Outbreak Happen Here?

We’re creating a series of conditions that make it more likely.

Deaths From TB Globally Outnumber HIV/AIDS

Hundreds of thousands more people world-wide suffer from tuberculosis than originally thought, and more now die from the infectious airborne disease than from HIV/AIDS, according to new data released Wednesday by the World Health Organization.

How Tuberculosis Shaped Victorian Fashion

The deadly disease—and later efforts to control it—influenced trends for decades.

I’ve got TB - but how?

'It seems to be positive," said the doctor, examining the red swelling on my forearm. Three days earlier, a nurse had told me to look away before she injected fluid into that spot. She was performing a skin test for tuberculosis (TB). I had volunteered for a research programme at Manhattan's Bellevue hospital, and the test was required. My nurse was so confident of a negative result that she had taken a ballpoint pen and drawn a circle around the area on my arm in case she couldn't locate it later... To my horror, the pen circle became a red mound, then a large scarlet antagonist. It sniggered at me in the shower, itched, and glared reproachfully. No, I thought, this can't be.

Meet The Sisters Who Invented The Tuberculosis Skin Test

We can reliably diagnose tuberculosis today thanks to Florence Siebert's persistence -- and the loyalty of her younger sister.

Study Offers New Clues on Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Findings show that TB prevention efforts should focus not just on correct antibiotic treatment, but also on preventing airborne transmission.

The Mantoux Tuberculin Skin Test Wall Chart

This wall chart illustrates the key steps in administration and reading of the TB skin test, and describes the cutpoints for interpretation of the skin test.

The Most Neglected Disease

Tuberculosis isn’t history, and it’s much more dangerous than malaria or Ebola.

The suitcase-sized kit helping to rid the Philippines of one of history’s great killers

Tuberculosis remains the world’s most deadly infectious disease but change is coming that could cut the threat and consign the illness to the past

Tuberculosis Is Rising Again, and Is Puzzling Our Drugs

Aided by poor treatment adherence, a new-old threat looms.

Tuberculosis kills more people than any other pathogenic illness

New drugs, vaccines and tests offer hope, though

Want to end TB? Diagnose and treat all forms of the disease

Tuberculosis should be a specter of the past, something only our great-grandparents feared and died of. Alas, although almost all cases of TB today are both preventable and treatable, several different strains and manifestations of the disease still sicken and kill millions of people every year.

Was Tuberculosis Born Out of Fire?

By damaging lungs and bringing people together, fire may have turned a soil microbe into a global pathogen.

We’ve come up with a TB test that’s cheaper, quicker and more accurate

Our study focused on ways to improve the sputum smear test because it can be scaled up and implemented in communities.

Why Tuberculosis Is Back

New data from the World Health Organization shows that we have allowed a preventable, curable disease to become the world’s biggest communicable killer. The millenniums-old lung disease tuberculosis now outranks even H.I.V./AIDS in the number of lives it claims. The fact is that we’ve been very successful at curing people of TB since the 1950s — so why is this illness still such a scourge?

Resources

Stop TB Partnership

The Stop TB Partnership is leading the way to a world without tuberculosis (TB), a disease that is curable but still kills three people every minute. Founded in 2001, the Partnership's mission is to serve every person who is vulnerable to TB and ensure that high-quality diagnosis , treatment and care is available to all who need it.

The Truth About TB

If you are concerned about tuberculosis (TB), or symptoms that could be TB, this website can help. Here you will find information, advice and support about all aspects of TB: from TB symptoms and risks to treatment and recovery – including sources of support to help you through your TB journey. You can also read people’s TB stories; and the answers to questions from others that are concerned about TB.

Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative

TBVI is an independent non-profit foundation that facilitates the development of new vaccines to protect future generations against tuberculosis.

IAVI

Now, after decades of research, there is a renewed optimism for TB vaccines.

Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is a speciality journal focusing on basic experimental research on tuberculosis, notably on bacteriological, immunological and pathogenesis aspects of the disease. The journal publishes original research and reviews on the host response and immunology of tuberculosis and the molecular biology, genetics and physiology of the organism.

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

The global TB mortality rate fell by 35 percent between 1990 and 2009, but TB remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, with almost 9 million new cases reported each year.

California Tuberculosis Controllers Association

To eliminate of the threat of tuberculosis from California through leadership and the development of excellence in tuberculosis prevention and treatment.

CDC

TB is a disease caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal. TB disease was once the leading cause of death in the United States.

KidsHealth

One of the most dreaded diseases of the 19th century, TB was the eighth leading cause of death in children 1 to 4 years of age during the 1920s. As the general standard of living and medical care improved in the United States, the incidence of TB decreased. By the 1960s, it wasn't even in the top 10 causes of death among children of any age group.

MayoClinic

Once rare in developed countries, tuberculosis infections began increasing in 1985, partly because of the emergence of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV weakens a person's immune system so it can't fight the TB germs. In the United States, because of stronger control programs, tuberculosis began to decrease again in 1993, but remains a concern.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

An ancient disease, TB remains one of the major causes of disability and death worldwide. In 2010, an estimated 8.8 million people fell ill with TB, including 1.1 million cases among people with HIV, according to the World Health Organization. Of the 1.4 million deaths, 95 percent occurred in developing countries. NIAID is part of the global research community that is committed to finding new ways to better understand, diagnose, treat, and ultimately prevent TB.

National Prevention Information Network

Welcome! Looking for the latest TB prevention news? Information on the connection between TB and HIV/AIDS?

ScienceDaily

Tuberculosis News

Todar's Online Textbook of Bacteriology

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death in the world from a bacterial infectious disease. The disease affects 1.8 billion people/year which is equal to one-third of the entire world population.

WHO

Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne infectious disease that is preventable and curable. WHO is working to dramatically reduce the burden of TB, and halve TB deaths and prevalence by 2015, through its Stop TB Strategy and supporting the Global Plan to Stop TB.