1 TB is an infectious disease. Like the common cold, it spreads through the air. When infectious people cough, sneeze, talk or spit, they propel TB germs, known as bacilli, into the air. A person only needs to inhale one of these to become infected. Left untreated, each person with active TB will infect on average between 10 and 15 people in each year.
Tuberculosis is a disease of poverty and is exacerbatedby poor sanitation and living conditions.
Drug resistant TB is a new threat facing the population. People who have not completed treatment remain infectious and develop resistance to anti-TB drugs. People they infect will have the same drug resistant strain. This form of TB is more difficult and more expensive to treat and more likely to be fatal. In keeping with its position as a leading world economy, Russia had one of the most developed health infrastructures in the world.