Tuberculosis (TB) may be a potentially serious communicable disease that mainly affects your lungs. The bacteria that cause tuberculosis are spread from one person to a different through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes. Tuberculosis (TB) may be a bacterial infection spread through inhaling tiny droplets from the coughs or sneezes of an infected person. It mainly affects the lungs, but it can affect any a part of the body, including the stomach (abdomen), glands, bones and systema nervosum . Tuberculosis is curable and preventable. About one-third of the world's population has latent TB, which suggests people are infected by TB bacteria but aren't (yet) ill with disease and can't transmit the disease. People infected with TB bacteria have a lifetime risk of falling ill with TB of 10%.