On Sept 26, the UN General Assembly hosted the first high-level meeting on tuberculosis under the key theme “United to end tuberculosis: an urgent global response to a global epidemic” in New York (NY, USA). The purpose of the meeting was to provide a platform for high-level leaders to reaffirm their commitment to accelerate efforts towards the Sustainable Development Goal of ending the tuberculosis epidemic by 2030, but the outcome was unsatisfactory.

The theme of this year's World Tuberculosis Day March 24 is “Unite to end TB”. As part of the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs), WHO has set ambitious targets for 2030 to reduce the number of tuberculosis deaths by 90% and disease incidence by 80%. These sit beside the 95–95–95 UNAIDS goals for 95% of people living with HIV to know their status, 95% of people who know their status receiving treatment, and 95% of people on HIV treatment having a suppressed viral load by 2030.

The eradication of tuberculosis will require a fundamental overhaul of the way the disease is viewed, identified, and treated—this was the conclusion of two major recent publications about tackling the epidemic.