Ending tuberculosis by 2030—Pipe dream or reality?
Jeremiah Chakaya, Anthony Harries, Guy B. Marks
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health threat. In 2018, an estimated 10 million people fell ill with TB and 1.5 million died of the disease. The End TB Strategy envisages an end to TB as a public health threat and has set ambitious targets to reduce TB incidence and mortality by 90% and 95%, respectively, by 2035 compared with 2015. In this paper we describe the progress that is being made towards the achievement of these targets and highlight the challenges that are hampering this progress. The development and deployment of new tools will certainly accelerate progress towards ending TB. We believe that the end of TB is realizable if there are sustained efforts to actively find TB cases, a more robust multi-sectoral approach to tackle social determinants of TB, and improved person-centred health services.