Tuberculosis is a disease caused by an infection with the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is a slow growing bacterium, evolved from soil bacterium more than 10,000 years ago and is a respiratory transmission infectious disease. It is a single largest infectious disease in the world and nearly 32% of the world�s population is infected with TB. Among the infected individuals approximately 8 million develop active TB, and almost 2 million of these die from this disease and 95 % of new TB cases occurs in developing countries every year.1-5. The bacteria, that cause the disease, are inhaled in the form of microscopic droplets that comes from a person with tuberculosis. After the tuberculosis bacteria have been inhaled, they reach the lungs and, within approximately six weeks, a small infection appears, that rarely gives any symptoms and is known as the primary infection. They then spread through the blood and may also remain dormant if the immune system of the person is good. They get reactivated if the immune system is weak and affect the lungs. It can be diagnosed by chest X-ray examination. Quicker methods using DNA techniques are under development, and a skin reaction Mantoux test is carried out.
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