Tuberculosis Continued as Global Challenge Though the Burden Remained High in Low-Income and High-Income Countries
In the last three decades, tuberculosis has been recognized by the World Health Organization as one of the major public health threats worldwide. Despite the strong efforts to control tuberculosis, it still remains a global challenge, specifically in low and middle-income countries (1). Recent reports show a declining incidence of tuberculosis globally (1, 2). Several factors influence the epidemiology of tuberculosis including clinical, demographical, geographical and social aspects at local or national levels.Like the other parts of the world, in the last few decades, Ethiopia demonstrated remarkable achievements in reducing morbidity and mortality from tuberculosis. Despite these achievements, the country inhabits a large number of tuberculous cases ranking 10thout of the 22 high burden countries where 80% of all global tuberculosis burden exists (1, 3). Routine health facilities reports show that tuberculosis is still among the top ten causes of admission and deaths among Ethiopian adults. Though it is almost thirty years since directly observed treatment (DOTS) has been started in Ethiopia, evidences show that poor treatment adherence remains a major challenge in Ethiopia which can be attributed to several reasons. This includes poor knowledge of the public about the disease’s transmission and treatment, inaccessibility of treatment facilities, limited health care professionals’ commitment and long treatment duration (4, 5). The government of Ethiopia while crafting the health sector transformation plan targeted several prevalent and emerging diseases. Tuberculosis remained among the major infectious diseases included in the priority list (6). Being in the middle of the health sector transformation plan, it appears that Ethiopia to exert extra effort to accelerate the decline of incidence of tuberculosis. Besides strengthening the ongoing DOTS regimen, educating the public continuously about the transmission and treatment of tuberculosis, regular evaluation of treatment outcomes and boosting the commitment of health care providers are key among others to realize a successful tuberculosis control program. The public education should follow different approaches since the level of understanding and access to routine mass media is variable across the nation.The current issue of the journal, the fifth regular issue for the year 2018, contains an editorial, sixteen original articles and a review and focusing on various topics. Two of the original articles, in one way or another, deal with the burden of tuberculosis in Ethiopia.I invite readers to read through these articles and appreciate or utilize the contents. I also urge readers to forward comments and suggestions to the editor or the corresponding authors.