Tuberculosis is still a significant health and economic problem in Central Asia, despite some recent progress that may be due to improvements of the overall economic situation in these countries, and partial adoption of the DOTS Strategy recommended by WHO. Over 50,000 new cases have been detected in 2003 and over 7,000 people died due to TB in the four countries studied. This study has confirmed that it is highly unlikely that these Central Asian republics will succeed in achieving the global targets for tuberculosis control in the short term, particularly with regard to case detection. In...