Epidemiology of tuberculosis in the EU/EEA in 2010 – monitoring the progress towards tuberculosis elimination

The 2012 combined tuberculosis (TB) surveillance and monitoring report for the European Union and European Economic Area identifies a mean annual decline in TB notification rate by 4.4% from 2006 to 2010. Culture confirmation for new pulmonary cases and drug susceptibility testing have increased to 65.6% and 70.8%, but remain under their targets of 80% and 100%, respectively. Reporting of treatment outcome and co-infection with human immunodeficiency virus also remain suboptimal. Strengthened control practices are needed to allow progress towards TB elimination.