Eskild Petersen Editor-­‐in-­‐Chief IJID World TB Day 24 March 2015 Professor of Tropical Medicine Department of Infec5ous Diseases Aarhus University Hopsital, Denmark The special issue of the IJID was the idea of my friend (UCL) Professor Alimuddin Zumla, conveyed to me on a taxi to Riyadh Airport. Without his persistence and commiMment, we could not have reviewed and collated such a large number (33) of high-­‐quality papers from over 200 authors within a few months. Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Mycobacterium tuberculosis Robert Koch (1843 -­‐ 1910) 1882 The Nobel Prize in Medicine 1905 "for his inves5ga5ons and discoveries in rela5on to tuberculosis" Berliner Klinische WochenschriW 1882;15:221-­‐230 Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Mycobacterium tuberculosis Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Tuberculosis in Denmark Sweden 1950’s Wallstedt & Maeurer. The history of TB management in Sweden IJID 2015;32:170-­‐8 Lillebaek et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2002;8:679-­‐84. Socio-­‐ economic factors are the main determinants for incidence and mortality Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Highly endemic countries has an incidence equivalent to Denmark in 1875 or higher WHO World Tuberculosis report 2014 Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Can we trust the data ? WHO World Tuberculosis report 2014 Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Way forward for achieving TB control? •  Accountability, responsibility and good leadership •  Eradica'ng poverty + providing beMer housing •  BeMer use of exis'ng TB tools and services •  Holding hands and moving forward together •  Sustainable na'onal government investment and geang rid of donor dependency •  Large consor'a for advocacy and priority research Ø  Investments in health infrastructure (management, surveillance, evalua5on) Ø  Research (New drugs, Vaccines, Novel interven5ons, Latent TB reservoir) Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Therefore Tuberculosis is too big a problem to be leW only to physicians and health care systems We need poli5cal commitement to more investments in health infrastructure in resource poor coun5es and investment in Research (basic science, vaccines, drugs, transla5onal clinical, clinical trails, health systems and opera5onal) Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 Can we reduce the number of ac5ve TB cases by adressing the reservoir of latent TB ? Clinical trials are badly needed Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015 The IJID will con5nue to be commiaed to publish original research, reviews and commentaries The Interna5onal Journal of Infec5ous Diseases is an open access journal and fees are waivered for studies from resource limited countries Co-­‐Guest Editors Markus Maeurer Ben Marais Jeremiah Chakaya Timothy D. Mchugh Marc Lipman Chris'an Wejse The IJID are indebted to all guest editors, the numrous authors contribu'ng to the special issue. The guest-­‐editors did an outstanding work persuading the authors to keep the 'ght deadlines. The Interna'onal Society for Infec'ous Diseases decided to waiver the open access fees and Elvevier was a professional and efficient publisher throughout the process. Especially I would like to extend my gra'tude to our publisher Fiona MacNab, and co-­‐workers AnneMe Fowler and Julie Millard, and to Ali Zumla for his compassion and volunatry 'me. Interna'onal Journal of Infec'ous Diseases – World TB Day special issue 24 March 2015