World TB Day, opportunity to raise public awareness, economic consequences of tuberculosis

Kolkata: World TB Day is recognized each year on March 24, commemorating the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes tuberculosis (TB), which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.

The Day is an opportunity to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of tuberculosis (TB) and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic Ending the TB epidemic is a target under the Sustainable Development Goals that requires implementing a mix of biomedical, public health target and socioeconomic interventions along with research and innovation.

The End TB Strategy encompasses a package of interventions that fall under three pillars. The first pillar – integrated, patient-centred care and prevention - puts patients at the heart of service delivery. The second pillar – bold policies and supportive systems – requires intense participation across government, communities and private stakeholders. The third pillar – intensified research and innovation – is critical to break the trajectory of the TB epidemic and reach the global targets.According to the World Health Organization (WHO), despite significant progress over the last decades, TB continues to be the top infectious killer worldwide, claiming over 5000 lives a day. The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) poses a major health security threat and could risk gains made in the fight against TB.

The theme of World TB Day 2018 - “Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world”- focuses on building commitment to end TB, not only at the political level with Heads of State and Ministers of Health, but at all levels from Mayors, Governors, parliamentarians and community leaders, to people affected with TB, civil society advocates, health workers, doctors or nurses, NGOs and other partners. All can be leaders of efforts to end TB in their own work or terrain.

This is a critical theme, given the political importance of the upcoming UN General Assembly high-level meeting on TB this year, which will bring together Heads of State in New York. It follows on from a very successful Ministerial Conference on Ending TB in Moscow on November 16-17, 2017 which resulted in high-level commitments from Ministers and other leaders from 120 countries to accelerate progress to end TB. (UNI)