TUBERCULOSIS: INFECTIOUS DISEASE

Tuberculosis (TB) remains, at the beginning of this new millennium, a major human infectious disease of global relevance, despite the efforts that have been invested for its control in the last decade.tuberculosis is a disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The infectious etiology of tuberculosis was debated until Robert Koch discovered the tubercle bacillus in 1882. Improved socioeconomic conditions and the isolation of infectious patients in sanatoriums had a favorable impact on the epidemiology of the disease in the first half of the 20th century. The disease usually affects the lungs although in one third of cases other organs are affected. When strains are susceptible, all cases are virtually curable. If untreated, the disease can be fatal within 5 years in more than half of the cases. Transmission usually takes place by airborne transmission from individuals with pulmonary tuberculosis disease.