**4. Literature review**

A recent report by WHO revealed a global tuberculosis incidence of 6.3 million for 2016 reflecting a rise from the preceding year [3]. In the same vein, sub Saharan Africa has a substantial burden of tuberculosis related morbidity and mortality as

The current epidemiological profile of tuberculosis in Sub-Saharan Africa seems to have an established association of the disease with poverty and social deprivation [3, 5, 8]. Similarly, the burden of tuberculosis remains an obstacle to socioeconomic development with a staggering direct and indirect cost of health financing [3, 9, 10]. The relationship between tuberculosis and social deprivation in addition to the adverse socioeconomic developmental effect of tuberculosis creates a vicious cycle of disease, poverty and poor productivity among the most disadvantaged in the

*Mycobacterium tuberculosis* is the causative organism of tuberculosis which was discovered by Robert Koch [11]. This granuloma forming microorganism is well adapted to live in a man and cause disease under favorable condition(s). In the same token, *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* is ubiquitous and has some unique features in its genetic makeup and cell wall constituents that not only distinct it from other organisms but also confers it with the strength of survival under harsh and stressful

The *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* genome is composed of insertion sequences (IS) and phages which serve as unique features for its identification and speciation [12]. The type of IS that is abundant in *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* is IS6110 [12]. The knowledge of *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* genome is used in assessment of rate of transmission, identification of a regional circulating strain and detection of trans-

The main stay of *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* diagnosis has been the sputum microscopy (Ziehl Neelsen) and the solid media culture (Lowestein-Jensen medium) [14]. Although, these conventional methods of *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* identification and isolation are still in use, newer methods of tuberculosis diagnostics which include Ampiclor *M. tuberculosis* PCR test and Cephid GeneXpert is fast gaining relevance and acceptance [15, 16]. The merits of use of molecular and immunological techniques cannot be overemphasized in view of its additional benefit of infectious organism speciation, isolate antimicrobial sensitivity and detection of specific mutations that confer drug resistance (i.e., rpoB and KatG mutation) [15, 16]. The acquisition and deployment of molecular tuberculosis diagnostics in priority high disease burden areas would eventually increase rate of *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* infection identification. This is predicated on the fact that early detection and treatment of

This chapter is an exploratory study of existing tuberculosis diagnostics aimed at highlighting the conventional and advanced methods of *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* evaluation. The objective is to identify suitable and efficient method(s) of tubercu-

This chapter is a descriptive research on the evolutionary trend of tuberculosis diagnosis. Available literature would be used to identify existing methods of *Mycobacterium tuberculosis* detection. A comparative analysis between the merits and

smear positive tuberculosis is attributed to improved cure rate [15].

losis detection by way of profiling their merits and demerits.

reported in the 2016 WHO global tuberculosis report [3].

*Healthcare Access - Regional Overviews*

society.

conditions [12, 13].

border spread of the disease.

**2. Aim and objectives**

**3. Methods**

**104**
