Together with AIDS, tuberculosis ranks among those infectious diseases with the highest global mortality rate, claiming the lives of between 1.5 and two million people every year. However, not everyone infected with the bacterium develops tuberculosis. In fact, fewer than ten percent of those infected go on to manifest the disease. An international team of scientists, including researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, have now developed a tuberculosis test that can reliably predict whether an individual will develop active tuberculosis. Doctors may be able to use this test in future to predict the progression of the disease and initiate medical care early.
In future, molecules from blood samples can tell physicians if somebody will develop tuberculosis.
Read more: Blood test for Tuberculosis
Source: cli-online
