Mycobacterial persistence and immunity.

Tuberculosis still remains a major threat to global health at the beginning of the 21st century. The extraordinarily high numbers of morbidity and mortality are due to the ability of the pathogen, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, to evade an effective immune response and to persist within the host organism for long periods of time. The following article reviews our knowledge about both pathogen and host mechanisms involved in the immune response to M. tuberculosis.