Both treatable and curable, control of the disease is mainly preventative, done through vaccination. TB occurs in almost every country in the world, though mostly in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Environmental risk factors including overcrowding and malnutrition make TB a disease of the poor. People infected with HIV or diabetes are much more likely to get TB because of weakened immune systems. However, once infected with the active form of the disease, the symptoms are often mild and so individuals do not immediately seek treatment and often contribute to spreading the infection. It can lie dormant in many individuals, meaning that although they are carriers, they donвЂ™t develop the active disease, nor do they transmit it.

Highly contagious, it can be spread simply by inhaling a few particles from an infected person coughing, spitting or sneezing. ItвЂ™s symptoms including coughing up sputum or blood, fever, night sweats, weakness and chest pain.ДЄn infection of the lungs, TB is quite insidious. Tuberculosis, or TB for short, is second only to HIV/AIDS as the leading cause of death from a single infection. Despite being a recurring theme in literature and art, the reality of tuberculosis is much uglier. La BohemeвЂ™s Mimi, Les MiserablesвЂ™ Fantine, Moulin RougeвЂ™s Satine, among many others, have succumbed to the disease.

Tuberculosis may be the worldвЂ™s most romanticized disease.

Dying of consumption