Figure 1: Projected trend in the decline of global tuberculosis incidence, from 110 cases per 100 000 in 2015 to 10 cases per 100 000 or less by 2035. Reproduced from [3] with permission from the publisher.

Mentions: We thank Martina Sester and colleagues for their careful reading of our paper [1] and for their support to the prospect of tuberculosis (TB) elimination in low-incidence countries in a foreseeable future. While we respect the views of the authors that the targets may appear too ambitious, we believe that, if the scientific community stay focussed on innovative approaches that can translate into scalable and effective interventions, we could reap the benefits of such interventions within the space of the next two decades [2]. Figure 1 shows the trend in TB incidence into the future, should current efforts to control TB – including the treatment of latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection (LTBI) – be intensified and boosted by new techniques and approaches.FIGURE 1