Whatever we may have once optimistically thought, TB remains with death, taxes and political chicanery as being inevitable, unavoidable and deeply unpleasant. It shows every sign of weathering the storm of potent anti-tuberculous medications and superb randomised controlled trials to emerge in ever-increasingly drug-resistant forms, potentially turning the clock back to the 1930s. This edition of Thorax, coinciding with world TB day, is themed to recognise the ongoing sinister successes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, unarguably the most successful human pathogen of all time.

IGRA testing and high risk populations

We, being simple minded airway doctors, have struggled to keep ourselves updated on the nuances of interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) testing. For those similarly afflicted, we have commissioned a brief review (see page 288). This would be an excellent place to start before tackling two papers from very fine institutions in London and Leicester investigating the role of IGRA testing in high risk populations. Manish Pareek and colleagues from Imperial (page 230; hot topic) show that …