REMEMBER when lots of people died of ordinary bacterial infections? Probably not, unless you were around before the 1950s. That’s when antibiotics stopped the rot, at least for the world’s better-off.
The bad news is those days are returning. Tuberculosis has broken free of antibiotic control, a fact that could affect us all. The bacterium that causes TB is staggeringly common, infecting one-third of humanity, lying in wait for a chance to erupt into disease. Last year it erupted in 9 million people and killed 1.6 million, putting it among the world’s biggest causes of death.
Since the 1980s, TB…
