title: Tuberculosis: Is the landscape changing?
abstract: Robert Heinrich Herman Koch, a German physician and microbiologist, received Nobel Prize in 1905 for identifying the specific causative agent of tuberculosis (TB). During his time it was believed that TB was an inherited disease. However he was convinced that the disease was caused by a bacterium and was infectious, tested his postulates using guinea pigs, and found the causative agent to be slow growing mycobacterium tuberculosis. TB is the second most common cause of death from infectious diseases after HIV/AIDS. Drug-resistant TB poses serious challenge to effective management of TB worldwide. Multidrug-resistant TB accounted for about half a million new cases and over 200,000 deaths in 2013. Whole-genome sequencing (first done in 1998) technologies have provided new insight into the mechanism of drug resistance. For the first time in 50 y, new anti TB drugs have been developed. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently revised their treatment guidelines based on 32 studies. In United States, latent TB affects between 10 and 15 million people, 10% of whom may develop active TB disease. QuantiFERON TB Gold and T-SPOT.TB test are used for diagnosis. Further research will look into the importance of newly discovered gene mutations in causing drug resistance.
authors.affiliation: Division of Community and General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center, McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Sutapa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khatua
authors.affiliation: Division of Community and General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center, McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Abby M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Geltemeyer
authors.affiliation: Division of Community and General Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center, McGovern Medical School, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gourishankar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D024881:Drug Resistance, Bacterial; D016679:Genome, Viral; D014943:Global Health; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D063426:Human Migration; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D055985:Latent Tuberculosis; D009154:Mutation; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history / Q000628:therapy*; D018088:Tuberculosis, Multidrug-Resistant / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000266:history / Q000628:therapy; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult