CONTROL STRATEGIES FOR TUBERCULOSIS EPIDEMICS - NEW MODELS FOR OLD PROBLEMS

Tuberculosis, although preventable and curable, causes more adult deat hs than any other infectious disease. A theoretical framework for desi gning effective control strategies is developed and used to determine treatment levels for eradication, to assess the effects of noneradicat ing control, and to examine the global goals of the World Health Organ ization. The theory is extended to assess how suboptimal control progr ams contribute to the evolution of drug resistance. A new evaluation c riterion is defined and used to suggest how control strategies can be improved. In order to control tuberculosis, treatment failure rates mu st be lower in developing countries than in developed countries.