Epidemiology and diagnosis of tuberculosis

PREVIEW

Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a devastating disease worldwide and is believed to be present in about one third of the world's population. It is estimated that about 8 million new cases of TB and 2.6 to 2.9 million deaths from this disease occur annually around the world. Primary care physicians provide the critical first steps in reducing the incidence of active cases and detecting the emergence of drug resistance in TB. In this article, the authors discuss characteristics of the disease and diagnostic procedures for rapid identification and drug susceptibility testing.