TB elimination in the United States — the need for renewed action

Once called “the captain of all these men of death,” tuberculosis continues to kill 1.8 million people globally each year. In 2014, the World Health Assembly embraced an ambitious resolution to reduce deaths from tuberculosis by 95% by 2035. But despite such global concern, tuberculosis has all but vanished from the U.S. public’s mind as a perceived threat. Although this lack of attention is understandable, given the substantial decrease in disease burden over the past several decades, it jeopardizes the prospect of tuberculosis elimination in the United States — a goal established by the Department of Health and Human Services in 1989. Critical ethical and policy questions must be addressed if elimination is to be pursued in earnest.