Tuberculosis remains a major cause of death, with an estimated 8· 6 million new cases in 2012 and 1· 3 million deaths attributable to the disease. 1 Of special concern is that, of these cases, an estimated 450 000 were due to multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis with an estimated 170 000 deaths attributable to these resistant strains. Although, in the past decade, there has been incremental progress in diagnostics and a small number of new or repurposed drugs have entered later phase clinical trials, progress in the development of a new vaccine has suffered a setback. Advocacy groups decry mediocre efforts to reach unambitious targets as a cause for delay of progress in the fight against tuberculosis, echoed now by some thinking within the scientific and tuberculosis control community itself. At the recent (Oct 30, 2013)