Tuberculosis
Current Topics and Reviews
Description:... Tuberculosis is a disease which once was spoken of in fearful whispers, but with improvements in standards of public health and hygiene this dreadful disease seemed largely to have disappeared from the consciousness of the developed world. However, in 1993, the World Health Organization declared tuberculosis a global health emergency, pointing out that there are now more cases of tuberculosis in the world than at any time in history and that 30 million will die of the disease in the next ten years. The resurgence of the diesease is by no means confined to the Third World, with its more problematic public health problems of dense populations in cities and in the refugee camps; indeed most of the new cases of tuberculosis are now in the developed countries as described in the overall surveys in this volume. The new problems may arise from a variety of modern facts such as the spread of AIDS, poorer social conditions, immigration from areas where the disease is already widespread, or increased overseas travel. In addition there is the prevalence of new forms of resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This symposium volume presents expert views on these problems and describes the approaches being undertaken by health professionals working with patients as well as the efforts being made in industrial and academic laboratories to develop new understanding of the biological processes and hence new approaches to successful therapy.
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