The immunological aspects of latency in tuberculosis

J Chan, JA Flynn - Clinical immunology, 2004 - Elsevier
A unique feature of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is its ability to exist in the granuloma of an
asymptomatic host in a latent state that can subsequently reactivate to cause active disease.
The latent state of infection poses a major obstacle to eradicating tuberculosis. In latent
tuberculosis, the host immune response is capable of controlling the infection and yet falls
short of eradicating the pathogen. That the host immune response contributes to the
maintenance of latent tuberculous infection is supported by the observation that certain …