Each year, World Tuberculosis (TB) Day is commemorated on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.
The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.
TB remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer. Each day, over 4000 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.
The Representative of the World Health Organisation, in Nigeria, Tereza Kasaeva, has said Nigeria ranks first in Africa among countries with the highest cases of tuberculosis infection.
She also said the country ranked among the top 10 countries globally.
Kasaeva stated this when she led a delegation of the United Nations Programming Mission on a visit to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, at the National Assembly, Abuja.
Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 58 million lives since the year 2000. To accelerate the TB response in countries to reach targets – Heads of State came together and made strong commitments to end TB at the first-ever UN High Level Meeting in September 2018.
The theme of World TB Day 2020 – ‘It’s time’ – puts the accent on the urgency to act on the commitments made by global leaders to:
scale up access to prevention and treatment;
build accountability;
ensure sufficient and sustainable financing including for research;
promote an end to stigma and discrimination, and
promote an equitable, rights-based and people-centered TB response.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a joint initiative “Find. Treat. All. #EndTB” with the Global Fund and Stop TB Partnership, with the aim of accelerating the TB response and ensuring access to care, in line with WHO’s overall drive towards Universal Health Coverage.
This World TB Day, WHO calls on governments, affected communities, civil society organizations, health-care providers, and national/international partners to unite forces under the banner “Find. Treat. All. #EndTB” to ensure no one is left behind.
