[Epidemiology of tuberculosis. Continued increase in resistant pathogens?].

Up into the eighties, such institutions as the WHO and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA were confident that tuberculosis would be eradicated by the start of the 21st century. Since then, however, tuberculosis has made such a vigorous comeback that in 1993, the WHO was prompted to call it a "global health emergency". The improverishment of large areas of the planet, resulting in an absence of elementary standards of medical care, in concert with population growth and the HIV epidemic, led to a dramatic increase in the incidence and deadliness of tuberculosis, as also in the incidence of resistant strains of the tuberculosis pathogen in many countries. As a result of migration, however, this development is not confined to such countries, but has also become a major problem in the developed countries, including Germany.