U.S. TB rates reach all-time low, but resistance a threat

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Tuberculosis rates in the United States reached an all-time low in 2012, with fewer than 10,000 cases reported even as the global threat of drug-resistant TB rises, but U.S. officials fear progress in beating back the disease could be fleeting. About a third of the world’s population is infected with the bacteria that cause TB, and nearly 4 percent of those newly infected globally are resistant to multiple drugs from the start. …