George Orwell, Franz Kafka, Charlotte Bront� and Frederic Chopin all died of a disease known, at the time, as consumption. 2007 marks the 125th anniversary of the discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the infectious agent of the disease we now call TB.

The word 'consumption' conjures images of bygone eras, but tuberculosis today infects more than one-third of the world's population; 10% of them will develop the disease during their lifetime; 1.7 million people will die this year. A map of the disease's prevelance shows how Africa and Asia carry the bulk of this burden.

The development of the antibiotic streptomycin in 1943 made for a cure, and for a short while the disease seemed on the ebb. Today, however, TB remains as much of a threat as it was before antibiotics. So what happened?

Poor adherence to control programmes, the consequent emergence of drug resistance, and the widespread prevalence of HIV has caused a resurgence; now it threatens to escalate out of control.

Solving the problem

Public-private partnerships are throwing money at the problem, and after decades of drought, new drug possibilities flood the pipeline.

What's needed now are better ways of diagnosing the disease, a rethink of the drug regimine, and a workable vaccine. But bureaucracy, along with more scientific problems, still stand in the way.

Nature Medicine has polled leading TB experts and asked them to select papers that showcase the most important advances in tuberculosis research over the past three years, and invited some to write summary pieces about what has happened so far with this disease, and where we need to go next. To read these more academic insights, see the full list of commentaries and other articles on Nature Medicine's website.

TB's toll: Countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia have the highest prevalence of tuberculosis.

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