Tuberculosis is increasing, partly because of concomitant HIV-infection, but with poverty and lack of social welfare and public health services contributing substantially. Current treatment for tuberculosis has proved efficacious also in HIV-infected patients, and so far seems to have prevented increased transmission of the disease in Tanzania. Strictly controlled chemotherapy provides the only hope of preventing the emergence of multi-resistant tubercle bacilli. The World Bank has evaluated tuberculosis control as the most cost-effective form of health intervention among adults. Norway has made a substantial contribution to the development of a model for tuberculosis control in developing countries and to international mycobacterial research; and therefore has a special responsibility to meet the new challenge.
