Tuberculosis, the Canadian Lung Association/Canadian Thoracic Society and the New Millennium

The Canadian Association for the Prevention of Consumption and Other Forms of Tuberculosis, parent to both the Canadian Tuberculosis Association and the Canadian Lung Association (CLA) with its medical arm, the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS), carried the Cross of Lorraine (Figure 1) and the crusade against tuberculosis (TB) in Canada during the twentieth century. For these societies, the battle was joined long before government - public health and communicable disease control - took up the cause. Allied or unallied with government, these societies were party to no small measure of success. TB mortality was 165/100,000 people in 1908; TB morbidity was just under seven/100,000 people in 1999. Yet, continued success is stalled; the incidence of TB in Canada has not changed for 15 years, and globally, TB is undergoing an unprecedented resurgence. Why is this so, and what of the role of the CLA and CTS in the fight against TB in the new millennium