Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – Globally, TB kills more than a million people a year. While the disease is treatable, drug-resistant strains are emerging. Pictured, an Indian TB patient outside the Rajan Babu Tuberculosis Hospital in New Delhi.
Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – India leads the world for new TB cases, with more than 2 million in 2012. In 2011 Indian doctors reported cases of "totally drug resistant" TB.
Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – This rendering shows drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria, which cause TB. When people with lung TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel TB bacteria into the air.
A third of the world's population has latent TB, which means they have been infected by TB bacteria but are not (yet) ill and cannot transmit the disease.
Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – TB drug resistance is the result of ineffective drug formulations or people failing to complete their course of antibiotics.
Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – More than 500,000 South Africans contract TB each year, including thousands of cases of extensively drug-resistant TB. Pictured, a TB patient in Alexandra township, near Johannesburg.
Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – "The disease has reached a public health emergency in South Africa," says Keertan Dheda, professor of medicine at the University of Cape Town.
Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – Pictured, Indian nursing students at an awareness rally in Hyderabad, on March 24, 2014. Their placards are encouraging "DOTS" the WHO's TB control strategy that includes effective testing and a reliable drug supply.
Return of the 'White Plague': Fears over the rise of 'incurable' TB
Drug-resistant TB – "Russia, India, China and South Africa have about 60% of the world cases, so if they don't improve there is no way the world can progress," says Mario Raviglione, director of the WHO Global Tuberculosis Program.
