Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is a bacterial infection caused by a germ called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but they can also damage other parts of the body. TB spreads through the air when a person with TB of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes or talks. If you think you have been exposed, you should go to your doctor for tests as soon as possible. You are more likely to get TB if you have a weak immune system.

What is Tuberculosis?

Tuberculosis (TB) is a dreaded bacterial infection. It has been known to mankind since ancient ages. It was commonly called “consumption” at the turn of the last century because of the way the disease seemed to “consume” the individual it affected.

How Has The COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Tuberculosis Eradication?

Tuberculosis in Animals

What is the END TB Strategy?

Tuberculosis Prevention

Tuberculosis Treatment

Tuberculosis Diagnosis

Tuberculosis Transmission

Tuberculosis Prognosis

Tuberculosis Causes

Tuberculosis Screening

History of Tuberculosis

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New tuberculosis technologies: importance of access in the private health sector

Latest Tuberculosis News and Research

New approach tracks metabolic fingerprints of tuberculosis-infected human cells

Researchers from King's College London and the University of Surrey have developed a new technique to measure the content of individual human cells infected with bacteria that model tuberculosis – and it is already revealing biological changes that conventional analysis would miss.

18 Mar 2026

Study uncovers how tuberculosis bacteria fuel themselves during infection

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have uncovered how the bacteria that causes tuberculosis fuels itself during infection, providing new insights into one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases.

17 Mar 2026

Report highlights huge gaps in antibiotics for children

Antibiotic production from big pharmaceutical companies has slowed significantly in the last five years, leaving children in low- and middle-income countries particularly exposed to hard-to-treat infections, according to new analysis.

12 Mar 2026

USAID funding cuts increase financial burden for families with tuberculosis

More than a year after the second Trump administration began dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the global health consequences of this unprecedented loss in international aid continues to surface.

11 Mar 2026

DNA origami vaccine platform shows promise against multiple infectious viruses

The COVID-19 pandemic brought messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines to the forefront of global health care. After their clinical trial stages, the first COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was administered on 8 December 2020 and mathematical models suggest that mRNA vaccines prevented at least 14.4 million deaths from COVID-19 in the first year alone.

11 Mar 2026

New method isolates true transcription factor targets in tuberculosis bacteria

Inside every cell, thousands of molecular signals collide, overlap, and compensate, obscuring the true drivers of gene expression.

2 Mar 2026

Study highlights systemic forces sustaining tuberculosis transmission

Despite major advances in diagnostics and treatment, tuberculosis (TB) remains the world's deadliest infectious disease.

26 Feb 2026

Experimental antibiotics disrupt bacterium that causes tuberculosis

Researchers from the University of Sydney and the Centenary Institute have discovered how a promising class of experimental antibiotics disrupts the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), paving the way for urgently needed new treatments.

25 Feb 2026

Democrats decry meager medical care for detainees in funding fight

Fernando Viera Reyes needed a biopsy for possible prostate cancer when the Trump administration sent him to an immigration detention center in California's Mojave Desert.

25 Feb 2026

Unmasking the impact of C. neoformans as a Global Menace

Cryptococcus neoformans is one of four fungi classified as 'critical priority' on the WHO's Fungal Pathogens Priority List, which was published in October 2022 following decades of research and calls for fungal pathogens to be classified alongside their bacterial and viral counterparts.

23 Feb 2026

Tuberculosis bacteria stiffen cell membranes to evade immune destruction

Scientists have uncovered an elegant biophysical trick that tuberculosis-causing bacteria use to survive inside human cells, a discovery that could lead to new strategies for fighting one of the world's deadliest infectious diseases.

22 Feb 2026

UK aid cuts accelerate dangerous retreat from global health in crisis-affected regions

UK aid cuts demand justice-led solutions such as debt restructuring to repair the harm, writes Katie Husselby, director of Action for Global Health.

17 Feb 2026

Frozen in time: Ancient bacteria reveal evolution of drug resistance

Bacteria have evolved to adapt to all of Earth's most extreme conditions, from scorching heat to temperatures well below zero.

17 Feb 2026

Obesity sharply increases hospitalisation risk from infections, global analysis shows

Adult obesity is associated with a substantially higher risk of severe hospital-treated or fatal infections across multiple pathogens, with risk increasing as obesity severity rises. Global modelling suggests roughly one in ten infection-related deaths worldwide may be attributable to adult obesity, although causality cannot be confirmed.

15 Feb 2026

Modified peptides show promise against tuberculosis bacteria

Antibiotic treatments are losing effectiveness against a range of common bacterial pathogens, including E. coli, K. pneumoniae, Salmonella and Acinetobacter, according to a warning issued by the World Health Organization last October.

13 Feb 2026

Engineered Listeria boosts innate immunity against cancer

After nearly 40 years of research on how Listeria bacteria manipulate our cells and battle our immune system to cause listeriosis, Daniel Portnoy and his colleagues have discovered a way to turn the bacteria into a potent booster of the immune system - and a potential weapon against cancer.

13 Feb 2026

High adherence and safety found in short TB treatments

A study comparing one- and three-month antibiotic treatments to prevent active tuberculosis (TB) finds that a high percentage of patients successfully completed both regimens and suffered few adverse side effects.

10 Feb 2026

Obesity drives one in ten infectious disease deaths

Just over one in 10 deaths from a wide range of infectious diseases can be attributed to obesity worldwide, finds a major new study led by a University College London (UCL) researcher.

9 Feb 2026

Early tuberculosis treatment reduces sepsis deaths in HIV patients

Sepsis is a leading global cause of hospital deaths, occurring when the body's response to infection damages tissue and causes organs to fail. Africa bears the world's highest burden of sepsis, with an estimated 48 million cases each year leading to about 11 million deaths.

7 Feb 2026

Early TB treatment before sepsis diagnosis could save countless lives

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major unrecognized cause of deadly sepsis among people with HIV in Africa, a sweeping new study reveals. Beginning treatment for TB immediately – even before sepsis patients are diagnosed with TB – could save countless lives, the researchers say.

30 Jan 2026