Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by bacteria of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex that are transmitted through air droplets from persons with pulmonary tuberculosis. Once exposed, a person might become infected but only 5–10% of them will, eventually, develop the disease during lifetime. A quarter of the global population is estimated to be infected and, annually, more than ten million develop the disease. Of those only two-thirds are diagnosed and reported. With 1.6 million annual deaths, tuberculosis ranks currently as the second leading cause of death from infectious diseases after COVID-19, the first among those living with HIV. If timely diagnosed and effectively treated, the disease is curable, especially when caused by drug-susceptible strains. In the past three decades, numerous efforts have been made to control and, eventually, eliminate tuberculosis worldwide through global WHO strategies. The current end TB strategy promotes a broad “health and beyond health” approach aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the root causes of tuberculosis fall beyond the health sector, thus requiring coordinated multi-sectoral interventions.