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Better Control of TB Seen If a Faster Cure Is Found The World Health Organization1 estimates that about one-third of all people are infected with bacteria that cause tuberculosis . Most times, the infection remains inactive. But each year about eight million people develop active cases of TB, usually in their ______1______. Two million people die ______2______ it. The disease has ______3______ with the spread of AIDS and drug-resistant forms of tuberculosis. Current treatments take at least six months. People have to ______4______ a combination of several antibiotic drugs daily. But many people stop ______5______ they feel better. Doing that can _______6______ to an infection that resists treatment. Public health experts agree that a faster-acting cure for tuberculosis would be more effective. Now a study estimates just how _______7______it might be. A professor of international health at Harvard University2 led the study. Joshua Salomon says a shorter treatment program would likely mean not just more patients _______8_____. It would also mean ______9______infectious patients who can pass on their infection to others. The researchers developed a mathematical model to examine the effects of a two-month treatment plan. They ______10______the model with current TB conditions in Southeast Asia. The scientists found that a two-month treatment could prevent about twenty percent of new cases. And it might ______11______about twenty-five percent of TB deaths. The model shows that these ______12_____would take place between two thousand twelve and two thousand thirty. That is, if a faster cure is developed and in wide use by two thousand twelve. | 
