TB makes 8m people a year sick worldwide and kills 2m. Through the air, when sufferers cough, spit or sneeze. The sick used to be shut away in sanatoria to recover, or more often die, but current wisdom is that people do not catch it without prolonged close contact. Children, the elderly and the frail or immuno-compromised are at greatest risk. Fever and night sweats, coughing, losing weight and blood in the sputum are some of the main ones.
Symptoms usually take months to appear.
Yes, thanks to antibiotics. Patients are given a six-month course of four drugs. It is vital to stick to the course, even when the symptoms disappear, or the bacteria lingering dormant in the body will mutate to become resistant to the drugs. There are particularly serious problems in the former Soviet Union.