[Tuberculosis: a new priority]

Tuberculosis is one of the most widespread diseases affecting more than 8 million subjects. The death toll has been estimated at 3 million persons annually. In France, the incidence in 1991 was 15 per 100,000 inhabitants with wide regional variation (37 per 100,000 in Paris and surrounding areas). It is difficult to interpret variations in incidence which would appear to be on the rise since 1993. (The increase may be a real rise in incidence or simply due to better registration as a result of reports of HIV infection.) In industrialized countries, economic factors, movements in populations, restrictive policies in antituberculosis health care and HIV infection are all factors leading to an increased incidence in tuberculosis. These observations strongly suggest the need for reorganizing our health care policy in the fight against tuberculosis, improving modern techniques in bacteriological identification and imagining new modalities of prevention and treatment. Special emphasis must be placed on research still required before this curable disease can be eradicated.