Tuberculosis: What We Don’t Know Can, and Does, Hurt Us
Abstract
Mycobacterium tuberculosis has a penetrance of its host population that would be the envy of most human pathogens. About one-third of the human population would have a positive skin test for the infection and is thus thought to harbor the bacterium. Globally, 22 “high-burden” countries account for more than 80% of the active tuberculosis cases in the world, which shows the inequitable distribution of the disease. There is no effective vaccine against infection, and current drug therapies are fraught with problems, predominantly because of the protracted nature of the treatment and the increasing occurrence of drug resistance. Here we focus on the biology of the host-pathogen interaction and discuss new and evolving strategies for intervention.
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Science
Volume 328 | Issue 5980
14 May 2010
14 May 2010
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Copyright © 2010, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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Published in print: 14 May 2010
Acknowledgments
Research in the authors’ laboratories is supported by NIH grants AI067027, AI057086, AI080651, HL055936, and HL100928 (D.G.R.) and AI50732, HL71241, HL092883, and HL075845 (J.L.F.) and by the Intramural Research Program of the NIAID, NIH (C.E.B.). All three authors receive support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
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