3-9/1154 Edit

In the last ten years pulmonary tuberculosis has changed: from a fading disease of industrialized countries it has returned as a first line health emergency. Its etiology and pathogenesis are significantly dependent from relevant social and epidemiological factors such as HIV infection, AIDS, drug addiction, immigration of extra-communitary populations. This disease has not only changed from an epidemiological point of view, but also the clinical and symptomatological pictures are assuming yet undescribed forms due to the different patient substrate on which they flourish: AIDS, immigrant immunodeficiency status or immunosuppression due to drug addiction. This is the reason for the renewed interest in the disease, that is also evident by the number of international congresses and studies sponsored by the WHO, that aim at the definition of the new epidemiological risks and prevention of this often life-threatening condition. Our journal thus proposes an editorial review of this topic that up to fifteen years would have been considered obsolete.