ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis (TB) kills approximately 2 million people each year. The global epidemic is growing and becoming more dangerous. The breakdown in health services, the spread of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB are contributing to the worsening impact of this disease. In 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) took an unprecedented step and declared tuberculosis a global emergency, so great was the concern about the modern TB epidemic. It is estimated that between the years 2002 and 2020, approximately 1000 million people will be newly infected, over 150 million people will become sick and 36 million will die of TB, if control is not further strengthened.
