In Search for a Better Tuberculosis Diagnostic Test
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the most common deadly infectious diseases on the planet and the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of this disease present serious global public health challenges.1
The TB treatment regimen takes too long to cure and is complicated to administer, and anti-TB drugs can be toxic.2 There is no efficacious vaccine for TB.3
Rates of new infections are still rising in many endemic areas where TB co-infects those with HIV/AIDS.4
Treating this co-infection is further complicated by the surge of multi-drug resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb).5 TB diagnosis remains antiquated and inadequate in most parts of the world.6,7
Given that one-third of the world’s population is assumed to have been exposed to Mtb and to have developed latent infection, diagnostic assays based on the host immune response (whether cellular or humoral) often fail to distinguish active TB from latent cases.8,9
Unfortunately, identifying individuals with active pulmonary disease (the source of disease transmission) and distinguishing them from those with latent (non-transmissible) infection is critical to provide prompt and appropriate therapy to minimize the spread of TB. Active pulmonary TB is typically diagnosed by finding Mtb in sputum by acid-fast smear, a labor-intensive process requiring trained personnel and with widely varied sensitivity in different settings (20-60%).
Article Details
Authors maintain copyright and grant the HSJ the right to first publication. From 2024, the publications wiil be licensed under Attribution 4.0 International 
, allowing their sharing, recognizing the authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are authorized to assume additional contracts separately for the non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (e.g., publishing in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their personal page) at any point after the editorial process.
Also, the AUTHOR is informed and consents that the HSJ can incorporate his article into existing or future scientific databases and indexers, under the conditions defined by the latter at all times, which will involve, at least, the possibility that the holders of these databases can perform the following actions on the article.