Of the 10 million individuals who became ill with ‘active’ TB in 2018, approximately three million were missed by health systems, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In addition, the actual number of infected individuals might be as high as 1.7billion, due to the ability of the mycobacterium, which causes the disease, to lie dormant in infected individuals without causing illness.
Those who develop active TB disease must take medication to treat the disease and may be asked to self-isolate for 2 weeks or longer. A diagnostic, such as Actiphage, that would allow doctors to more rapidly identify infectious cases of TB could improve detection whilst removing uncertainty.
