Understanding how tuberculosis develops and progresses in patients

This is a research study that follows people who have tuberculosis (TB) — either active TB disease or latent TB infection — to understand how the disease develops and progresses in different people. Researchers will collect blood samples and TB samples from about 100 patients and study how their immune systems respond to the infection and what genetic factors might affect how TB develops.

Tuberculosis is a complex infection that behaves very differently from person to person — some people with TB infection never develop disease, while others become very sick. Researchers need to better understand why this happens and how to improve treatment, especially for drug-resistant forms of TB and people with weakened immune systems.