Tuberculosis is spread through the air, when people who have the disease cough, sneeze or
spit. A number of the world’s current population have been infected with M. tuberculosis, and
new infections occur at a rate of one per second. However, most of these cases will not develop
the full-blown disease; asymptomatic, latent infection is most common. About one in ten of these latent infections will eventually progress to active disease, which, if left untreated, kills more than
half of its victims. In 2004, mortality and morbidity statistics included 14.6 million chronic active cases, 8.9 million new cases, and 1.6 million deaths, mostly in developing countries. In addition,
a rising number of people in the developed world are contracting tuberculosis because their immune systems are compromised by immunosuppressive drugs, substance abuse, or AIDS. The distribution of tuberculosis is not uniform across the globe with about 80% of the population in
many Asian and African countries testing positive in tuberculin tests, while only 5-10% of the US population testing positive. It is estimated that the US has 25,000 new cases of tuberculosis each
year, 40% of which occur in immigrants from countries where tuberculosis is endemic.