EPIDEMIOLOGY OF TUBERCULOSIS The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently pub-

lished the trends in tuberculosis (TB) incidence in the United States (1). In 2006, a total of 13,767 TB cases were reported in the United States, at a rate of 4.6 per 100,000, representing a 3.2 % decline from 2005. The incidence of TB in 2006 was the lowest recorded since 1953, but the rate of decline has slowed since 2000. Foreign-born persons and racial/ethnic minority populations continued to be affected disproportionately. The TB rate among the former was 9.5 times that of United States– born persons. The slowing of decline in the overall national TB rate and the inability to effectively address persistent disparities in TB rates between United States–born and foreign-born per-sons, and between whites and racial/ethnic minority popula-tions, may hamper progress toward the goal of TB elimination in the United States. Current guidelines only recommend targeted tuberculin test