World Tuberculosis Day

The theme of this year’s World TB Day is: Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world.

You can make history. End TB

Each year we commemorate World TB Day on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic impact of tuberculosis (TB) and urge acceleration of efforts to end the global TB
epidemic. This year, we commemorate the 136th anniversary of Dr. Robert Koch’s announcement in 1882 of his discovery of the TB bacillus, the cause of TB. His groundbreaking research opened the way toward diagnosing and curing this disease.

Despite significant progress over the last decades, TB continues to be the top infectious killer worldwide, claiming over 4500 lives a day. The emergence of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) poses a major health threat and could put at risk gains made in efforts to end TB.

Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world

A TB Leader is a head of state, minister, mayor, governor, parliamentarian and community leader. A TB Leader is also every person affected by or active in TB and willing and daring to speak up and engage to end TB
through their work and personal engagement.

Facts

Tuberculosis (TB) is contagious and airborne.
TB is one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide. It is also the main cause of death related to antimicrobial resistance and the major killer of people with HIV.
In 2016, there were an estimated 10.4 million new TB cases worldwide. People living with HIV accounted for 10% of the total cases.
In 2016, 1.7 million people died from TB, including 0.4 million among people with HIV.
The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) poses a major threat to global TB care; 0.5 million people developed MDR-TB in 2016. Only 1 in 5 needing MDR-TB treatment were treated.
For TB prevention and care, investments in low- and middle-income countries fall almost USD 2.3 billion short of the USD 9.2 billion needed to tackle TB in 2017;
TB research and development are severely underfunded with at least additional USD 1.2 billion per year needed to accelerate development of new, innovative tools.

Official Hashtags
#WorldTBDay2018 #WorldTBDay #EndTBWeek

More information

Get involved. Promote World TB Day to your friends, colleagues and contacts over social media.

Visit the key websites below for more information.

Our thanks to World Health Organization (WHO)and Stop TB Partnership for providing information for the website.