Dilvani Oliveira Santos

Current Diagnosis of Infant Tuberculosis Infection Dilvani Oliveira Santos

One of the most extraordinary characteristics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is its capacity to remain within the host's tissues for a long period of time. There is an enormous reservoir of persons latently infected with tuberculosis (LTBI) estimated at about a third of the world's population. From this reservoir arise about 10 million new cases of active TB and more than two million deaths occur annually. Current Diagnosis of Infant Tuberculosis Infection covers problems concerning the diagnosis of LTBI, giving an overview of commercially available options and, unlike most reviews on this subject, also points out some tools currently under development. The book provides comprehensive understandable, practice-oriented information on this subject, while keeping frontier research developments in consideration. It serves as an update to readers from universities to the research center and hospital staff - as well as a guide for helping clinicians to improve their diagnostic skills regarding TB infections in an endemic country (such as Brazil).