Tuberculosis Waits Patiently for Its Comeback [Slide Show]
Although the total number of TB cases is falling worldwide, more dangerous strains appear to be proliferating
![Tuberculosis Waits Patiently for Its Comeback [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/3F03ED21-D456-4CA7-B52ECB838C2B7119.jpg?w=590&h=393)
Tuberculosis Waits Patiently for Its Comeback [Slide Show]
- 12 The homeless are particularly vulnerable to tuberculosis. Recent outbreaks have been reported among homeless groups in Jacksonville, Fla., Los Angeles and Grand Forks County, N.D. Image Credit: Flickr/Franco Folini, Creative Commons 2.0
- 11 Although TB became a disease of poverty in the 20th century, it seems to be evolving in new ways that could increasingly threaten the affluent as well. Image Credit: WHO/Anna Kari
- 10 Ramatullah is an Afghan bus conductor who is being treated for drug-resistant TB. If he stops working, his extended family will have nothing to eat. Image Credit: WHO/Riccardo Venturi
- 9 Chronic lack of food and unstable living conditions also help tuberculosis thrive. The father (leaning on the car) of this family of migrants from the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s had TB... Image Credit: Library of Congress
- 8 The TB germ does not cause disease in isolation. The dark and crowded rooms of New York City tenement buildings in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were ideal environments in which tuberculosis could spread... Image Credit: Lewis Wickes
- 7 A combination of antibiotics is used to treat tuberculosis, but they must be taken for six to nine months to cure an uncomplicated case. TB strains that are no longer susceptible to standard medications require two years or more of treatment with increasingly powerful drugs that often have debilitating side effects... Image Credit: WHO/Christopher Black
- 6 Over the past 50 years many children in TB-prone countries have received a modestly effective vaccine (called BCG, for bacille Calmette-Guérin) to help prevent one of the pathogen’s worst complications—TB meningitis, an oft-fatal infection of some of the tissues that surround the brain and spinal column... Image Credit: WHO/UN
- 5 Strong sunlight has long been known to help fight the spread of tuberculosis. Here we see TB patients convalescing in the sun parlor of the National Soldiers’ Home in Dayton, Ohio, circa 1910–20... Image Credit: Library of Congress
- 4 But TB can attack many other organs in the body besides the lungs. Omar was paralyzed when TB attacked his spine. He is regaining mobility, thanks to treatment and physical therapy. Image Credit: WHO/Riccardo
- 3 The most common way TB spreads from one person to another is via an active infection in the lungs. Image Credit: WHO/Riccardo
- 2 In 2011 Afghanistan reported that 61,000 of its people suffered from tuberculosis and 13,000 had died. Eighteen-year-old Fatima (left) came to a clinic with her father to learn whether or not she has TB... Image Credit: WHO/Riccardo
- 1 In 1936, when this photo was taken, tuberculosis killed more than 71,500 people in the U.S. Crowded living conditions often meant that a parent, such as this mother, could easily pass the infection to the rest of the family... Image Credit: Paul Carter
