A world free of HIV and TB?

This World AIDS Day, global health pundits are again offering answers to the perennial questions: Can we, and when will we, eliminate HIV and its sibling plague, TB? The two pandemics are, after all, deeply intertwined: TB remains the leading cause of death for those infected with HIV. Advocates and activists have set their sights high. They want to "Get to Zero": zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination, zero AIDS related deaths; and, similarly, zero TB deaths, zero new TB infections, zero TB suffering. Not everyone thinks this is realistic. Many global health experts share the views expressed by Tom Paulson in a recent Humanosphere post titled, "Sorry, but no, the end of AIDS is not in sight."