TY - JOUR T1 - Tuberculosis elimination: dream or reality? The case of Cyprus JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 543 LP - 546 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00044314 VL - 44 IS - 2 AU - Constantia Voniatis AU - Giovanni Battista Migliori AU - Michael Voniatis AU - Andreas Georgiou AU - Lia D’Ambrosio AU - Rosella Centis AU - Mario C. Raviglione Y1 - 2014/08/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/2/543.abstract N2 - To the Editor:The World Health Organization (WHO)-recommended strategy of tuberculosis (TB) control has evolved from the DOTS (directly observed treatment, short course) strategy to the Stop TB strategy [1, 2]. By breaking the chain of transmission through rapid diagnosis and effective treatment of infectious TB cases, this strategy allowed the development of national TB programmes and proved to be highly cost-effective [3, 4].However, in order to accelerate the decline of the TB pandemic, WHO has planned a post-2015 strategy focusing on the concept of TB elimination [5–8]. To reach elimination (defined as fewer than one sputum smear-positive case per million inhabitants), countries should ensure that diagnosis and treatment of latent TB infection (LTBI) supplements detection and treatment of active TB disease [7–10].A recent survey conducted by the European Respiratory Society (as part of its 2012–2013 Presidential plan) and WHO in Europe has demonstrated that the majority of countries do not have all the interventions in place to reach elimination [11], and stressed the importance of studying model countries able to demonstrate that TB elimination can be reached [12–14].The aim of the present study was to show the progress achieved by Cyprus towards the elimination targets. Cyprus has been selected because of its solid TB control programme, the quality of surveillance data and health services, and its small population (865 878 in 2012).The way … ER -