NEW research is urgently needed to tackle tuberculosis, the deadly lung disease that kills over two million people globally every year, says medical aid charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Even though a third of the world’s population carries TB germs, or bacilli, the last innovative medicine was developed more than 30 years ago, while the last vaccine was made as far back as 1923. According to the World Health Organisation, which declared the epidemic a global emergency in 1993, eight million people become ill with TB every year. 1.5 million of these are in Africa. – Reuters