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Updated Focus on TB Web Site Launched for World TB Day

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has launched an updated Web feature called “Focus on TB.” The site highlights research being done in NIAID’s labs in Bethesda, MD, and by NIAID-supported researchers across the country and around the world. Advances in drug development, new ways to diagnose TB quickly, and promising vaccine approaches are described.

Visit the Focus on TB site.

World TB Day, each March 24th, is an occasion to reflect on the grave problem that TB still poses throughout the world and to acknowledge advances in diagnosing, treating and preventing the disease. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world’s population is infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis , the bacterium that causes TB, and that as many as two million people die of TB each year.

March 24th is the anniversary of the date, in 1882, that German bacteriologist Robert Koch astonished the scientific world by announcing that he had discovered the cause of TB. At the time, TB rampaged through Europe and the Americas, killing one in every seven people. Koch’s discovery raised hopes that this terrible killer might be vanquished.

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For more information or to schedule an interview with one of our expert researchers, please contact the NIAID Office of Communications and Public Liaison at (301) 402-1663.

News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site.

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NIAID conducts and supports research—at NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwide—to study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID Web site at www.niaid.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health ^®

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