Tuberculosis (TB) remains a global health problem despite the availability of efficacious drug therapies and efforts being made to decrease its incidence. TB is the second leading cause of death globally due to an infectious disease behind the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). TB is caused by the infective bacillus organism Mycobacterium tuberculosis which primarily affects the lungs. There are two forms of TB: latent TB infection (LTBI) and active TB disease. In LTBI the organisms are non-replicating and the infected individual does not display symptoms of the infection. Active TB disease is seen when the organism slowly replicates inside the host cells. Patients exhibit signs and symptoms of the infection during active TB. M. tuberculosis is able to grow intracellularly in the host cell and prompt macrophage-induced drug tolerance to agents with antituberculosis activity.
Last date updated on June, 2025