Tuberculosis is still a major health problem
in developing countries. It is also emerging as
a major infectious disease in the developed
countries due to AIDS epidemic. Its pathogenesis,
immunology and molecular biology are still
incompletely understood. The development of
new drugs to fight tuberculosis ceased over two
decades ago. The variable efficacy of BCG,
found in different trials, still remains an enigma.
And, it is likely that its epidemiology is also
different, in some aspects, in developing countries
compared with the developed ones. Sometime
ago, it was said that the application of current
knowledge about tuberculosis was lagging so far
behind its application in the field that the focus
should shift from more and more research in
tuberculosis. That saying appears to have lost its
validity under the present circumstances, especially
when the WHO has declared a global war on the
“neglected epidemic”. The following horizons in
different aspects of tuberculosis can be recognised
in respect of research needs in tuberculosis