This thread should probably be moved to "around the campfire".

Yep, pulmonary TB incidence is in decline, but it's still part of the epidemic that started around 1980. Precipitating factors have been identified as foreign-born immigrants and HIV comorbidity. I don't disagree with what you said, but you're just looking at the last decade, and we have been fighting this epidemic, yes, epidemic, since 1980.

TB *used* to be a disease that was quite uncommon. Not so since 1980. This, like HIV, makes for some interesting theories about why the epidemics occurred, since many of the world's great killers (smallpox, polio, diptheria, etc.) have been either eradicated or pushed into small remnants. There are some that reared their ugly heads again, this time with MDR (multi-drug resistant) factors that make the CDC pull out their hair.