Hello,
my name is Mycobacterium tuberculosis! I am the king of
the pathogens, killing more people than any other infectious agent
and infecting a staggering 1/3 of the world's population. Mwah ha
ha.
Treating me requires a combination of antibiotics taken for 6 months. You see, I can form a latent infection with no obvious symptoms that is really difficult to cure. I am quite happy to wait around for decades in this latent state until your immune system becomes weakened by age or an infection like HIV. Then I attack and turn my victim's lungs into cottage cheese. Symptoms of tuberculosis include a persistent cough often with blood, night sweats and weight loss.
I've been around for ages, but you humans didn't discover me till 1882, when a guy called Robert Koch managed to culture me. I was pretty worried about my future when pasteurization of milk, improved hygiene, BCG vaccination and antibiotics came on to the scene in the western world. Luckily though, my good friend HIV is now letting me infect more and more people every year, mainly in the developing world. Multi drug resistance is doing me lots of good too and soon you humans won't be able to treat me at all. Cough cough.
