Fig. 3.-High-resolution computed tomography of the chest shows...
tuberculosis bacteria :: Article Creator Why Some Tuberculosis Bacteria Prove DeadlyScienceDaily People who fall sick with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) face daunting odds. Only about two in three survive the illness, unlike people with drug-sensitive TB, of whom more than 90 percent survive. Part of the reason drug-resistant TB is so lethal is because some antibiotics of first choice don't kill the TB bacteria, forcing doctors to treat the infection with second-line medications that are often more toxic and less effective. But the TB bacteria also may be undermining the body's ability to defend itself. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the same mutation that makes TB bacteria withstand a first-line drug also elicits a different -- and probably weaker -- immune response in mice. "As the bacteria become drug resistant, they change physiologically and trick the immune system to beh...