Every day, 3,500 people worldwide lose their lives to tuberculosis (TB), and around 30,000 people become infected with TB bacilli, according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. India alone accounts for 27% of global TB cases. This is jarring, given that TB is a detectable and curable disease and TB diagnosis and treatment protocols have been a part of existing health systems for a long time.
World TB Day, on March 24, commemorates Dr. Robert Koch’s discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the bacteria that causes tuberculosis) in 1882. Despite its discovery then, possible treatments using streptomycin in 1943 and the discovery of antibiotics such as isoniazid and rifampicin in the 1950s and 1960s, the war against the pathogen is far from been won, and there are multiple challenges to be overcome in combating the disease.
