"This web page was produced as an assignment for an undergraduate course at Davidson College."

Fast Facts:

• It is estimated that approximately 1/3 of the humanity (2 billion people) are infected with TB (WHO 2007)
• TB is the leading cause of bacterial infectious disease related deaths (Todar 2005).
• Mycobacterium Tuberculosis is the infectious/bacterial agent of Tuberculosis.
• Principle method for transmission: breathing (Smith 1994).
• Global incidence per year: 8 million people (Doherty 2004).
• In 2002: TB caused an estimated 2 million deaths (Doherty 2004).
• Mycobacterium tuberculosis is part of a larger family including M. bovis, M. africanum and M. avium.
• TB is a disease of poverty, war, and malnutrition (WHO 2007)
• Multi-drug resistant and now Extensive Drug Resistant TB have emerged
• TB can be either active or latent with the host

History:

The first historical records of tuberculosis date as far back as Greco-Roman times and the Egyptian civilizations. During the 17th and 18th centuries, nearly 100% of the European population was infected with M. tuberculosis. Tuberculosis became known as the White Plague (Todar 2005). Dr. Robert Koch was the first scientist to describe the pathogen associated with Tuberculosis.

Photograph provided with permission from raw-milk-facts.com

This site was created as partial fulfillment of requirments for Biology 307 at Davidson College in the Spring Semster of 2007.

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Questions and comments should be directed to Dr.Sarafova or to the site creator Emily Rivard