Extract
In 1993, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a press release announcing that tuberculosis (TB) was a global emergency, making it the first infectious disease to be declared as such. Although progress has been made, no country has eliminated TB and there are 3 million missed TB diagnoses each year [1]. The term global health emergency has since evolved and most recently, the term “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (as defined by the International Health Regulations in 2005) was applied to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which has caused over 11 000 deaths [2]. Ebola control efforts are now focussed on getting to zero cases. Yet, while huge public interest has focussed on Ebola, TB is bereft of public attention despite causing 1.5 million deaths since the Ebola epidemic began a year ago.
Abstract
International TB control efforts can learn valuable lessons from the recent Ebola outbreak http://ow.ly/OaoKP
Footnotes
Conflict of interest: None declared.
- Received March 17, 2015.
- Accepted May 12, 2015.
- Copyright ©ERS 2015