Problems and solutions for the Stop TB partnership

Recent international efforts for global control of tuberculosis have resulted in a new movement: the Stop TB partnership. One of the operational goals of this movement is based on WHO-determined targets to detect, by 2005, 70% of new smear-positive cases under DOTS, and to successfully treat 85% of these cases. In a paper in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Dye and colleagues present data that show the current case-detection rate to be low (only 27%), and that in many areas treatment-success rates are still below the WHO target level. Dye and colleagues predict, by linear extrapolation of these data, that the WHO target of a 70% case detection rate will be achieved by 2013. Here, we discuss why it is unlikely that the WHO global targets for either case detection or treatment success will be reached by 2013, and we also offer some potential solutions.