TB rise heralds return to 1930s
A woman suffering from tuberculosis covers her face at a clinic in the township of Khayelitsha, South Africa (Picture: AP)

A rise in tuberculosis risks turning back the clock to the 1930s, experts fear.

The infection is becoming increasingly resistant to drugs and medics fear a return to old-fashioned practices when surgery was used to control it.

‘Whatever we once optimistically thought, TB remains with death, taxes and political chicanery, inevitable, unavoidable and deeply unpleasant,’ said Andy Bush, joint editor of the journal Thorax.

Tuberculosis is usually caused by the bacteria mycobacterium tuberculosis, and laboratory tests show drugs are having little impact in treating it.

While TB often lies dormant with no symptoms, it can prove fatal if it becomes active. It usually attacks the lungs, bone and nervous system.

Mr Burns said: ‘This has the potential to turn the clock back to the 1930s.

‘We should recognise the ongoing, sinister successes of mycobacterium tuberculosis, unarguably the most successful human pathogen of all time.’