Zero deaths from tuberculosis: progress, reality, and hope

To commemorate World TB Day 2013, The Lancet Infectious Diseases is publishing a Series of articles on tuberculosis, a disease that has long plagued human beings and was declared a global emergency in 1993 by WHO. At that time, most Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains were susceptible to first-line tuberculosis drugs, and global control of the disease seemed a realistic goal. However, tuberculosis persists as one of the main causes of death from infectious disease: in 2011, 8·7 million incident cases causing 1·4 million deaths were estimated.