March 2019 digital v1

WAR TO
END
A SCOURGE
India is battling to eliminate TB by 2025 —
to vanquish an infectious malady that has
been haunting humanity for ages
S HARACHAND
In the year 1821, John Keats, one of the most celebrated
English poets, died of consumption at the age of 25.
Centuries later, that ‘consumptive disease’ still takes a
toll of millions of lives the world over in a more lethal form,
despite tremendous strides made by modern medicine to
curb diseases caused by bacterial infectious agents.
The history of tuberculosis is, perhaps, as old as
humanity itself. Though mankind survived the onslaught
of many a foul contagion that threatened to wipe it out
through the ages, tuberculosis (TB) turned out to be a
particularly resilient adversary.
March 2019 / FUTURE MEDICINE / 19