[The global importance of tuberculosis].

In the western industrialized world tuberculosis has receded from its peak with an annual mortality of 1 % some 150 to 250 years ago to currently 10 to 20 new cases annually per 100,000 population. The introduction of chemotherapy in the 1950s reduced case fatality from some 70 % to a small fraction. Nowadays, the indigenous elderly and immigrants from high-prevalence countries contribute most of tuberculosis morbidity in the industrialized world. In contrast, tuberculosis remains a major public health problem in most resource-constrained countries and has substantially increased in sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the impact of HIV infection. The World Health Organization estimates that each year over 9 million new cases emerge in the world. Because of weak infrastructures low-income countries continue to experience shortages in the drug supply, facilitating the emergence of strains resistant to first-line drugs which are difficult or impossible to treat. The primordial task for the international community is to assist in strengthening the necessary infrastructures and to help ensuring that patients have unrestricted and uninterrupted access to antituberculosis medications and antiretroviral drugs.