Preface

Tuberculosis has accompanied human beings since time immemorial, and without a doubt, it is the disease of infectious origin that has caused the highest number of deaths in the history of humankind.

However, despite the extraordinary technological advances achieved in the last decade, tuberculosis continues to cause more than 10 million cases and 1.3 million deaths annually.

The reasons that explain this pandemic are multiple, mainly poverty and poor medical care (95% of cases and deaths occur in low-income countries); other contributing factors include infection by the human immunodeficiency virus, substance abuse and the emergence of drug-resistant tuberculosis.

An additional contributing factor is the little attention that has been paid to the disease in the training of health personnel, where maybe a couple of hours are dedicated to the subject in the curriculum of universities. This lack of attention results in insufficient knowledge of tuberculosis, with the consequent delay in diagnosis and the prescription of inadequate treatment.

This book aims to be a reference manual for the student and health personnel who are not an expert in tuberculosis, since it contains information on all topics related to the disease, including epidemiological, microbiological, clinical, diagnostic and treatment aspects, BCG vaccination and the control of tuberculosis infection in health facilities.

I hope this work is useful for my colleagues during their everyday practice and benefits our patients that suffer from tuberculosis.