Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major infectious cause of mortality and morbidity, with approximately 8.6 million new cases and 1.3 million deaths per year [1]. In addition, there is concern over increasing rates of disease recurrence (including relapse and reinfection) after anti-TB drug therapy and an increasing trend of multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant (M/XDR) TB worldwide. Progress has been made in the control of tuberculosis, as advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO) [2].
