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Review
. 2017 Nov 3;216(suppl_6):S629-S635.
doi: 10.1093/infdis/jix362.

What We Know About Tuberculosis Transmission: An Overview

Gavin Churchyard  1   2   3   4 , Peter Kim  5 , N Sarita Shah  6 , Roxana Rustomjee  5 , Neel Gandhi  7   8 , Barun Mathema  9 , David Dowdy  10 , Anne Kasmar  11 , Vicky Cardenas  1
Affiliations
Review

What We Know About Tuberculosis Transmission: An Overview

Gavin Churchyard et al. J Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Tuberculosis remains a global health problem with an enormous burden of disease, estimated at 10.4 million new cases in 2015. To stop the tuberculosis epidemic, it is critical that we interrupt tuberculosis transmission. Further, the interventions required to interrupt tuberculosis transmission must be targeted to high-risk groups and settings. A simple cascade for tuberculosis transmission has been proposed in which (1) a source case of tuberculosis (2) generates infectious particles (3) that survive in the air and (4) are inhaled by a susceptible individual (5) who may become infected and (6) then has the potential to develop tuberculosis. Interventions that target these events will interrupt tuberculosis transmission and accelerate the decline in tuberculosis incidence and mortality. The purpose of this article is to provide a high-level overview of what is known about tuberculosis transmission, using the tuberculosis transmission cascade as a framework, and to set the scene for the articles in this series, which address specific aspects of tuberculosis transmission.

Keywords: Tuberculosis; transmission.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Projected acceleration in the decline of global tuberculosis incidence rates to target levels. From WHO END TB Strategy [3].
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Cascade of tuberculosis transmission. (Source: The Aurum Institute)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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