IJE Advance Access originally published online on April 11, 2007
International Journal of Epidemiology 2007 36(2):394-395; doi:10.1093/ije/dym023
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Commentary: Back to basicsgood news from a birthplace of DOTS
Senior Technical Advisor, Care and Treatment, Program Services, Office of the United States Global AIDS Coordinator, 2100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington DC, USA.
E-mail: granichrm@state.gov
Accepted 30 January 2007
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
Although India's tuberculosis (TB) control program has much to be pleased with, working on TB in India and elsewhere can be a daunting endeavour. The list of seemingly insurmountable global challenges is off-putting, to say the least: 8.9 million new TB cases each year; 1.7 million TB deaths annually, despite the existence of an effective cure; a devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic; archaic diagnostic technology often dating back to the early 1900s; pitiable investments in public health infrastructure; and nowthe latest grim news regarding extensively drug resistant (XDR) TB, make for very heavy sledding.14
XDR-TB is particularly alarming in the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Early reports suggest a TB mortality rate