The New Profile of Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis in RussiaThe New Profile of Drug Resistant Tuberculosis in Russia An estimated 2 billion people, one third of the global population, are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Spread through the air, this infectious disease killed 1. 7 million in 2009, and is the leading killer of people with HIV. Tuberculosis (TB) is also a disease of povertythe vast majority of tuberculosis deaths occur in the developing world.