Ending Tuberculosis through Prevention

Abstract

Tuberculosis kills more people than any other infection. For many years, it was assumed that effective diagnosis and treatment of people with symptomatic tuberculosis disease would prevent contagion sufficiently to control the disease. However, several studies have shown that although tuberculosis programs have resulted in cost-effective reductions in mortality, such efforts have had no detectable effect on global disease incidence.1 There is consensus that the ambitious global targets for ending the tuberculosis epidemic will be successful only with investment in specific interventions for tuberculosis prevention. Tuberculosis preventive therapy (i.e., treatment for asymptomatic latent tuberculosis infection) is highly effective, especially in . . .