Our podcast on science and technology. This week, we examine why the pandemic shattered global efforts to control tuberculosis, and ask whether innovations from the covid era could turn the tide against the disease
THE PANDEMIC shattered global efforts to control tuberculosis, which was the most lethal infectious disease in the world until covid-19 took its crown. Now, with deaths rising, TB is set to reclaim that dubious honour. But the covid era also holds important lessons for the fight against TB.
Avantika Chilkoti, The Economist’s international correspondent, travels to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to find out why TB is a disease of the poor. Mel Spigelman of the TB Alliance and Lucica Ditiu of the Stop TB Partnership say tackling the disease is a question of political will. Josefina Campos of ANLIS in Argentina explains how genomic sequencing helps monitor TB drug resistance. Author Vidya Krishnan talks about TB’s influence on art and culture.