Yes, but at what cost? TB is a horrible disease and the majority of those with it are n 3rd world countries where people can't possibly afford treatment.

New drugs have absolutely outrageous price tags. They are so costly that I wonder that in the US the FBI hasn't been called into investigate.

RICO comes to mind and on the local level usury laws might be used to curtail costs. Most other countries don't pay 1/2 what we do for new drugs.

These WHO plans for the next five years remind me of the old 5-year plans in the Soviet Union. All the various groups of "suits" at WHO, Stop-TB, Global Alliance, etc, continually issue such "plans" and as they do, TB just keeps getting worse.

You want to cure or stop the spread of TB? Control AIDS/HIV and enforce existing imirgation regulations..

The Number one killer of HIV/AIDS patients is TB. And MDT-TB has direct links to HIV/AIDS patients who did not take their meds correctly. Most AIDS/HIV infected people in the USA are DEAD before they are 48.

Blaming the spread of TB on poverty and living conditions, was effective 50+years ago. It has not been the case for the last 30+years, in the developed world. Being PC will only result in spreading the diseases further.

A prime example - Malaria was controlled not by curing the disease but by curing the carrier.

Immigration's got nothing to do with it - this article is about TB worldwide. Also, controlling HIV will not help stop the spread of TB as they are spread by different mechanisms (TB is airborne while HIV is transmitted through fluids). Eradicating TB might help AIDS patients live longer, but not the other way around.

As a PhD student working to understand how pathogens evade our innate immune responses, I am encouraged by the projections of TB rates declining by half by 2015. In order to achieve this admirable goal, we must simultaneous increase our funding in basic R&D. Much research is currently being done at Universities across the Globe focusing on figuring out how this bacteria is able to persist, despite our body's active immune system. By investing more resources into basic R&D focusing on the microbiological and immunological aspects of TB will put us on a path to truly understanding the disease and subsequently, how to eradicate it. The investment; however, must begin with the public's interest in solving this Global health crisis.

One of the easiest and most effective ways to do this is by providing the public with accessible resources to learn, discuss and understand the science behind the disease. If you are looking for a place to do exactly that, I encourage you to check out Escaping Anergy: The Immunology Research Blog, which focuses on discussing the latest published research in the fields of immunology, medicine, and human health!