Tuberculosis: Still a major killer

To many people in Western countries, the word “tuberculosis” conjures images of the past. The disease, which used to be referred to as “consumption”, is associated with the Victorian era, a time before vaccines or antibiotics.

On March 24, World Tuberculosis Day commemorates the discovery in 1882 of the bacteria that causes TB. Yet, despite advances in medicine over the last 136 years, tuberculosis killed more people in 2017 than any other infectious disease.