Right now, 2 billion people around the world are carrying tuberculosis, and most do not even know. This is because they have a “latent” infection, one which has no symptoms or can’t be spread but is in the person for years. While it may not seem like a problem, since it doesn’t actually affect the carriers, 10% of these people do end up getting an “active” form of Tuberculosis. A group of researchers from Colorado State University have found a way to use light to detect the disease in fluids, and may be able to use this method to make it easy to detect TB worldwide. Currently, there is no method of detection that you can easily transport around the world. You can read more here.
That is why this discovery is important. It gives us the ability to find many of the hidden cases, and helps us save the lives of not only people who have this latent tuberculosis, but also the people that would get tuberculosis if it was spread before it was discovered. We could maybe even eliminate it as a top killer of people (7th worldwide). While the technology isn’t there yet, this is a very huge step towards the ultimate goal of tuberculosis detection.
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