While the case defintion used here in this graph differs between the two countries (all cases in Switzerland, only sptum smear-positive cases in Tanzania), the disparity in the course of the epidemic is tremendous. HIV ifection has virtually no effect on tuberculosis in Switzerland, more than half of whose indigenous cases occur now among persons above the age of 65 years, while in Tanzania the two infections strongly overlap and have let to a tripling of notified incident cases in 25 years. That these are sources of transmission and occur among the generation of parents will have a long-lasting effect on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in the country, long after universal access to anti-retroviral treatment will ahve become reality.
