Improving tuberculosis surveillance in Europe is key to controlling the disease.

It was already well known since the sanatoria period (Germany, 1857) when treatment against TB consisted of good food, rest, sun, and fresh air that about half of TB cases recovered almost spontaneously. Robert Koch’s discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in 1882, Carlo Forlanini introduced the artificial pneumothorax in 1907 [1] and streptomycin was introduced at the end of the Second World War. These discoveries revolutionised the understanding and treatment of TB.