Diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis infection: can it contribute to achieving tuberculosis elimination?

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The END tuberculosis (TB) strategy, launched in 2015, calls for elimination of TB, defined as an incidence of less than one case of the disease per million population [1]. For the first time ever, it broadens the concept of TB control and raises the profile of diagnosis and treatment of the pool of infected individuals from which future TB cases will be generated [2]. Currently, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 10 million incident cases per year [3], while the number of persons with the infection is estimated at 1.7 billion [4]. Although not contagious, people with M. tuberculosis infection represent the reservoir for future TB cases. To meet the TB elimination goal, it is imperative that such a reservoir will also be extinguished. Models predict that elimination of TB can be reached by 2050 and that diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis infection (TBI) outperforms other interventions [5].