The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease: its contribution to world lung health.

Most readers of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine probably know that beginning in 1986 the number of reported cases of tuberculosis in the United States, which had been declining at a steady rate of 5%-6% per year, increased for the first time in 33 yr; moreover, since then the number of reported cases has continued to increase nearly every year until 1993. Similar increases in tuberculosis have been observed in other countries, such as Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, France, and the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, there has been a global resurgence of tuberculosis and, as is predictable from the prevailing geographic distribution of persons with the disease, the great majority of the "extra" cases, almost 90%, do not live in the rich industrialized nations of North America and Europe or in Japan or Australia; they live in the impoverished countries of Asia, Africa, and South America (1). Among the journal's sophisticated audience, probably only a few know that the health organization with the longest and by far the best track record in actually doing something about the immense problem of tuberculosis in developing nations is the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease or, as it is customarily known, the IUATLD. This article recounts the origins of the IUATLD and describes what it has done to combat tuberculosis and other perils to lung health in some of the poorest countries of the world.