ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a major global public health problem (1-5). Approximately two billion people worldwide are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb). The global incidence of active TB is estimated to be 8.8 million new cases per year-25,000 new cases each day (2). In developing countries-home to 95% of TB cases and 98% of TB deaths-TB causes 25% of the burden of preventable diseases. In 1991, the World Health Assembly adopted targets of detecting 70% of all infectious TB cases and curing at least 85% of detected cases by 2005 (2). Despite intensified efforts, these targets have not yet been met (3). At the end of 2003, 82% of TB cases were successfully treated, but only 45% of infectious TB cases were detected (4). Detection and cure rates are especially low in sub-Saharan Africa and other high-HIV-prevalence settings (5). Several questions regarding the TB epidemic remain unanswered today.
How can the research community contribute to achieving the targets set by the World Health Assembly, The Stop TB Partnership, and other public health officials? What is the role of research in addressing an emerging global health crisis? The new Stop TB Strategy of the World Health Organization (WHO), announced in early 2006 (see also Chapter 50), and underpinning the Global Plan to Stop TB, 2006-2015 of the Stop TB Partnership, has six elements, the sixth of which is ‘‘enabling and promoting research for new tools and program performance’’ (Table 1) (3).
