One third of the world's population is currently infected with the tuberculosis (TB) bacillus and every second another person is newly infected with tuberculosis around the world. Each year an estimated 8 million people develop clinical disease and 1.87 million people die of TB. These staggering numbers make tuberculosis one of the leading infectious disease killers.
Although complete eradication of TB once seemed possible, the increasing incidence of multidrug resistant (MDR) strains, and the deathly specter of AIDS which increases the risk of developing TB 30-fold, means that we are now faced with reemergence of the disease as a global health emergency.
In recognition of the importance of TB in terms of global health the Nature Medicine web focus brings you a comprehensive and authoritative overview of the field with Commentaries written by experts in the TB field especially for the site, summaries of the latest research articles, Nature Medicine papers and more.
