London — Twenty years ago, tuberculosis (TB) was one of the least glamorous branches of medicine. The cause had long been known, as had the cure, so all that was left was the unromantic slog of reducing the poverty, hunger and overcrowding that fostered the disease, and working out better ways to get patients to comply with the lengthy course of treatment needed to cure it.
But in 1993 the sudden upsurge in TB cases associated with HIV and AIDS, and the growth of multidrug-resistant (MDR) strains of the bacterium, led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the disease a global emergency, which unlocked research funding. Now we are beginning to see the results.
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