ABSTRACT
I. Introduction Tuberculosis (TB) is an old disease. Fragments of the spinal column from Egyptian mummies show evidence of TB over 4000 years ago. Large-scale epidemics of this disease have occurred in the recent centuries. With the advent of short-course chemotherapy, the global TB situation improved during 1970s to 1980s. However, since 1990s, TB has resurged alongside rampant drug resistance and HIV coinfection.
