Tuberculosis: An airborne disease

Abstract

Khushbu Yadav and Satyam Prakash

Tuberculosis is an infectious airborne disease which has subsisted for millennia and remains a foremost worldwide health problem due to persistence in aging populations. It causes ill-health in millions of people each year and one of the top 10 causes of death globally. It is the solitary chief killer of all the infectious disease agents and killing 4,900 people each day, more than HIV. M. tuberculosis is the major cause of TB and is transmitted through inhalation of aerosolized droplets and chiefly attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. The disease excessively affects the poorest persons in both high-income and developing countries. The Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 with one of the targets is to end the global TB epidemic. But, the relapse and spread of the disease contributes to the emergence of drug resistant and multidrug resistant TB which is increasing throughout the world, is of great concern. The rises of drug-resistant TB have reinforced the need for rapid diagnostic improvements and new modalities to detect TB and drug-resistant TB. Therefore, this review summarizes the literature relating to the extent of TB and recent advances for diagnosing of TB that can help for rapid detection of TB as well as to improve TB control.