For most people in the United States, the only awareness of tuberculosis (TB) may be the skin patch test required to work or volunteer in schools or health care facilities. But that could change during the pandemic. TB is considered a disease caused by a bacterium—Mycobacterium tuberculosis—that usually attacks the lungs, but can attack any part of the body. Not everyone infected becomes sick, so two stages of infection exist: a latent phase when people are asymptomatic, and an active phase when they develop symptoms and become ill. But TB has a worrisome connection to the novel coronavirus. For someone with latent TB, contracting COVID-19 could activate the bacterium, potentially leading to an accelerated and more severe form of the disease which could lead to hospitalization and rapid death. Both diseases are airborne and spread when people cough or sneeze. Latent TB is present in populations everywhere, including the U.S. While there is a high incidence ...