For World TB Day 2014, The Lancet group publishes a Series of papers to highlight the need for global collaboration to diagnose, treat, and cure people with tuberculosis.

To commemorate World TB Day 2013, The Lancet Infectious Diseases publishes a Series of papers on tuberculosis, a disease that has long plagued human beings and was declared a global emergency in 1993 by WHO. Without concerted action from political leaders, health policy makers, funders, and others, health systems worldwide are at risk of being overwhelmed by increasing numbers of patients with treatment-resistant tuberculosis.

This week sees the launch of the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2012. This annual report provides the latest data and analysis about the tuberculosis epidemic and progress made in prevention, care, and control of the disease from 182 member states and a total of 204 countries and territories with over 99% of the disease burden. As well as improvements in measurement and reporting, which include more country and prevalence surveys, for the first time the burden of tuberculosis in women and children and estimates of lives saved by the implementation of collaborative tuberculosis/HIV activities are documented. The report is a sobering read with good and bad news.