TB is not just a history lesson – but it is curable and controllable

WHEN we hear the word "tuberculosis" (TB), many of us picture a scene from a B&W movie, a sickly character coughing into a handkerchief in a crowded, dinghy room. We like to think of it as a disease of the past, something our grandparents worried about.

But the Feb 5, 2026, announcement that a TB cluster had emerged in Kota Tinggi, Johor, has reminded us that the disease is still very much present. Among the 33 cases were six schoolchildren.