The tuberculosis epidemic - Scientific challenges and opportunities

ONE IN EVERY THREE people on Earth is believed to be infected with Mycobact erium tuberculosis, leading to seven to eight million cases of active tuber culosis (TB) per year and approximately three million deaths annually. This epidemic, like those of most infectious diseases, creates scientific chall enges and opportunities as it raises the demand for public health solutions . The currently available weapons for fighting TB are inadequate. The ultim ate goal of biomedical TB research is to lessen the public health burden of this disease by developing improved diagnostic, therapeutic, and intervent ion strategics. Achieving this goal requires a base of knowledge about the biology of M. tuberculosis and related mycobacteria, their interactions wit h human and animal hosts, and the nature of an effective host-protective im mune response. TB researchers are applying this accumulating base of knowle dge to developing rapid, easy-to-use diagnostic assays appropriate for low- as well as high-income countries, improving the current complicated therap eutic regimen, identifying potential new drugs to combat multidrug-resistan t. TB, and creating more effective vaccines.