Diagnosis of Tuberculosis in Low-Resource Settings: Overcoming Challenges Within Laboratory Practice

Tuberculosis (TB), rightly referred to as an ancient disease, has affected humans for thousands of years, the first drafted reference of which came from India and China around 3,300 and 2,300 years ago, respectively. TB, caused by a bacillus called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a deadly infectious disease that is transmitted through aerosol droplets, and is estimated to have infected one-quarter of the global population. It has a mortality rate of 50% if treatment is not provided; however, with timely detection and interventions, which include currently recommended anti-TB drugs, 85% of people can be cured. India, being a resource-poor country, has one of the highest burdens of TB in the world, with an incidence of 210/100,000 in 2021, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB report of 2022.