Boost for study into new anti-TB drugs

Scientists have figured out how tuberculosis tricks the immune system, a discovery that could lead to new anti-TB drugs, according to a newly-released study.

In experiments with mice, they identified a key mechanism whereby TB bacteria provoke a form of death in host cells that enables the infection to spread through the lungs, they reported.

Tuberculosis infects more than nine million people every year, and in 2006 claimed nearly 1.7 million lives, World Health Organization figures show.