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Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that has plagued mankind for millennia. It is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis and affects approximately 10 million people every year. Although the disease is relatively easy to detect and treat, it continues to cause high levels of morbidity and mortality, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Adding to this problem, resistance to the drugs currently used in the treatment of tuberculosis is rising, compromising the treatment regimens currently available and promoting treatment failure and dissemination of the organism. In this chapter, we present basic information on the nature of this disease and its epidemiology and discuss several techniques used to diagnose tuberculosis, from the basic techniques used in the early days of tuberculosis research and control programs to the most recently developed methods and their promise in helping stop the tuberculosis epidemic. |
