BASEBiological Archive
for Science & Education
Search
HomeExploreTuberculosis
Disease

Tuberculosis

Infection or disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis

An airborne bacterial disease that usually affects the lungs; infection can stay inactive or progress to TB disease, which is treatable and curable.

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION IDENTIFIERTuberculosisView source record ↗

Overview

EXPLORE BY LEVEL

Tuberculosis is caused by a bacterium that spreads through the air. Some people carry an inactive infection; others develop TB disease, which needs months of treatment.

Quick Facts

AT A GLANCE
CauseMycobacterium tuberculosis
Tests for TB infectionIGRA blood test, tuberculin skin test
Tests for TB diseaseSputum smear, nucleic acid amplification, culture, drug-susceptibility testing

Follow the Connections

See how Tuberculosis links to other biological records.

Open network
OrganismMycobacterium tuberculosiscaused byBiomarkerTB Antibody test (unspecified)not recommended for diagnosis of
All 2 Structured Connections
Tuberculosis · DiseaseCAUSED BY →Mycobacterium tuberculosis · Organism
TB Antibody test (unspecified) · BiomarkerNOT RECOMMENDED FOR DIAGNOSIS OF →Tuberculosis · Disease

Recommended Reading

Trusted references for learning more about Tuberculosis.

guideTuberculosis fact sheetWorld Health Organization guideClinical Testing and Diagnosis for TuberculosisCenters for Disease Control and Prevention guideCommercial serodiagnostic tests for diagnosis of tuberculosis: policy statement (2011)World Health Organization databaseMycobacterium tuberculosis (taxon 1773)NCBI Datasets Taxonomy Browser
Research Claims

CDC identifies culture as the gold-standard microbiologic test for TB disease, supported by nucleic acid amplification and drug-susceptibility testing. WHO's 2011 policy statement advises against commercial antibody-based tests because of inconsistent accuracy.

Antibody (serologic) tests are not recommended for diagnosing TB disease; WHO advises against commercial serodiagnostic tests for pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB. The TB antibody test in BASE's source list is unspecified and is not presented as a diagnostic test for active TB.