Now, TB is making a strong comeback mostly among the less well-off financially and the more immune challenged. This TB surge's bacteria has figured out most of the current antibiotics that once dominated them. It's simply termed "multi-drug resistant tuberculosis" or MDR-TB.

So far, this TB variation plagues the less fortunate in less developed nations or immune compromised individuals. But among those actually infected, there are around a third who don't manifest symptoms but are carriers. And this multi-drug resistant TB bug is getting around.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recorded almost 9 million cases of TB worldwide in 2011. Of those, almost 1.5 million died.