Africa/Global: Tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections

Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection is a necessary, but not sufficient, cause of tuberculosis (TB), as only approximately 10% of those infected ever develop tuberculosis. This process of progressing to disease after infection is poorly understood. A well known risk factors for this progression is HIV/AIDS. In a letter that will appear in Emerging Infectious Diseases several scientists hypothesize on epidemiological grounds that, in addition to HIV, there likely exists another sexually transmitted virus that causes tuberculosis after tuberculous infection.