Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading infectious cause of death worldwide, killing roughly 1.6 million people in 2017. In the past 200 years, TB claimed the lives of more than 1 billion people — more deaths than from malaria, influenza, smallpox, HIV/AIDS, cholera and plague combined.
Recently, the global health community has strengthened its efforts and resolve to tackle this ancient disease. Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, details the institute’s new strategic plan for building on these current efforts by furthering the understanding of TB and developing and applying cutting-edge tools to fight the disease.