World Tuberculosis Day, observed on 24 March each year, is designed to build public awareness about the global

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...

(TB) and efforts to eliminate the disease. In 2018, 10 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.5 million died from the disease, mostly in

low and middle-income countries A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreem ...

. This also makes it the leading cause of death from an

infectious disease An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable di ...

. World TB Day is one of eleven official global public health campaigns marked by the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

(WHO), along with World Health Day,

World Chagas Disease Day World Chagas Disease Day is observed on April 14 to raise awareness around chagas disease. It was first celebrated on April 14, 2020, and was named after Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas, the Brazilian doctor who diagnosed the first case on April ...

World Blood Donor Day World Blood Donor Day (WBDD) is held on June 14 each year. The event was organised for the first time in 2005, by a joint initiative of the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to raise ...

, World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day,

World No Tobacco Day World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed around the world every year on 31 May. The yearly celebration informs the public on the dangers of using tobacco, the business practices of tobacco companies, what the World Health Organization (WHO) is ...

, World Hepatitis Day, World Patient Safety Day and

World AIDS Day World AIDS Day, designated on 1 December every year since 1988, is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease. The acquired imm ...

Background

24 March commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing to a small group of scientists at the University of Berlin's Institute of Hygiene that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. According to Koch's colleague,

Paul Ehrlich Paul Ehrlich (; 14 March 1854 – 20 August 1915) was a Nobel Prize-winning German physician and scientist who worked in the fields of hematology, immunology, and antimicrobial chemotherapy. Among his foremost achievements were finding a cure ...

, "At this memorable session, Koch appeared before the public with an announcement which marked a turning-point in the story of a virulent human infectious disease. In clear, simple words Koch explained the aetiology of tuberculosis with convincing force, presenting many of his microscope slides and other pieces of evidence." At the time of Koch's announcement in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

, TB was raging through

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

and the

Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...

, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch's discovery opened the way toward diagnosing and curing tuberculosis.

History

In 1982, on the one-hundredth

anniversary An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded in a previous year, and may also refer to the commemoration or celebration of that event. The word was first used for Catholic feasts to commemorate saints ...

Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ( , ; 11 December 1843 – 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera (though the bacteri ...

's presentation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) proposed that 24 March be proclaimed an official World TB Day. This was part of a year-long centennial effort by the IUATLD and the

(WHO) under the theme "Defeat TB: Now and Forever.” World TB Day was not officially recognized as an annual occurrence by WHO's World Health Assembly and the United Nations until over a decade later. In the fall of 1995, WHO and the Royal Netherlands Tuberculosis Foundation (KNCV) hosted the first World TB Day advocacy planning meeting in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

; an event they would continue co-sponsor over the next few years.Klaudt, Kraig. 2000. "Mobilizing Society Against TB." Pp. 843–864 in ''Tuberculosis: A Comprehensive International Approach'', 2d ed, ed. L. Reichman and E. Hershfield. New York: MarcelDekker. In 1996, WHO, KNCV, the IUATLD and other concerned organizations joined to conduct a wide range of World TB Day activities. For World TB Day 1997, WHO held a news conference in Berlin during which WHO Director-General Hiroshi Nakajima declared that "DOTS is the biggest health breakthrough of this decade, according to lives we will be able to save." WHO's Global TB Programme Director, Dr. Arata Kochi, promised that, "Today the situation of the global TB epidemic is about to change, because we have made a breakthrough. It is the breakthrough of health management systems that makes it possible to control TB not only in wealthy countries, but in all parts of the developing world, where 95 percent of all TB cases now exist." By 1998, nearly 200 organizations conducted public outreach activities on World TB Day. During its World TB Day 1998 news conference in London, WHO for the first time identified the top twenty-two countries with the world's highest TB burden. The next year, over 60 key TB advocates from 18 countries attended the three-day WHO/KNCV planning meeting for World TB Day 1999. U.S. President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

marked World TB Day 2000 by administering the WHO-recommended Directly Observed Therapy, Short-Course (

DOTS Directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS, also known as TB-DOTS) is the name given to the tuberculosis (TB) control strategy recommended by the World Health Organization. According to WHO, "The most cost-effective way to stop the spread of T ...

) treatment to patients at the Mahavir Hospital in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern Indi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

. According to Clinton, "These are human tragedies, economic calamities, and far more than crises for you, they are crises for the world. The spread of disease is the one global problem for which ... no nation is immune." In Canada, the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health noted on World TB Day 2014 that 64% of TB cases reported nationally were among foreign-born individuals and 23% among

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, highlighting TB as a key area of concern about

health equity Health equity arises from access to the social determinants of health, specifically from wealth, power and prestige. Individuals who have consistently been deprived of these three determinants are significantly disadvantaged from health inequiti ...

. Today the

Stop TB Partnership The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2001 to eliminate tuberculosis as a public health problem. Its 1500 partner organizations include international, nongovernmental and governmental organizations and patient groups. The secretariat is based ...

, a network of organizations and countries fighting TB (the IUATLD is a member and WHO houses the Stop TB Partnership secretariat in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

), organizes the Day to highlight the scope of the disease and how to prevent and cure it.

Themes by year

Each World TB Day addresses a different theme. The following is a list of annual themes: * 1997: Use DOTS more widely * 1998: DOTS success stories * 1999: Stop TB, use DOTS * 2000: Forging new partnerships to Stop TB * 2001:

: TB cure for all * 2002: Stop TB, fight poverty * 2003:

cured me – it will cure you too! * 2004: Every breath counts – Stop TB now! * 2005: Frontline TB care providers: Heroes in the fight against TB * 2006: Actions for life – Towards a world free of TB * 2007: TB anywhere is TB everywhere * 2008–2009: I am stopping TB * 2010: Innovate to accelerate action * 2011: Transforming the fight towards elimination * 2012: Call for a world free of TB * 2013: Stop TB in my lifetime * 2014: Reach the three million: A TB test, treatment and cure for all * 2015: Gear up to end TB * 2016: Unite to End TB * 2017: Unite to End TB * 2018: Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world * 2019: It's time * 2020: It's time to end TB! * 2021: The clock is ticking * 2022: Invest to end TB. Save Lives

2008–2009: I am stopping TB

The two-year World TB Day campaign "I am stopping TB", launched in 2008, highlighted the message that the campaign belonged to people everywhere doing their part to stop TB.

2010: Innovate to accelerate action

The World TB Day 2010 recognized people and partners who had introduced a variety of innovations in a variety of settings to stop TB. On the occasion of World TB Day 2010, the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC; french: Comité international de la Croix-Rouge) is a humanitarian organization which is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and it is also a three-time Nobel Prize Laureate. State parties (signato ...

(ICRC) declared that attempts to stem the spread of tuberculosis across the globe are likely to fall well short of what is needed unless authorities in affected countries significantly increase their efforts to stop the deadly disease from breeding inside

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

s. As a result of overcrowding and poor nutrition, TB rates in many prisons are 10 to 40 times higher than in the general public. The ICRC had been fighting TB in prisons in the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa for more than a decade, either directly or by supporting local programmes.

2011: Transforming the fight

For the World TB Day 2011 campaign, the goal was to inspire innovation in TB research and care.

2012: Tell the world what you want to see in your lifetime

For World TB Day 2012, individuals were called upon to join the global fight to stop TB in their lifetime.

2013: Stop TB in my lifetime

The World TB Day 2013 campaign provided an opportunity to mark progress towards global targets for reductions in TB cases and deaths: TB mortality fell over 40% worldwide since 1990, and incidence was declining. Further progress would depend on addressing critical funding gaps: an estimated 1.6 billion US dollars needed to implement existing TB interventions.

2014: Reach the three million

Of the 9 million people a year who get sick with TB, 3 million of them are "missed" by

health system Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organi ...

s. The focus of World TB Day 2014 was for countries and partners to take forward innovative approaches to reach the 3 million and ensure that everyone suffering from TB has access to TB

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems engin ...

, treatment and cure.

2015: Gear up to end TB

World TB Day 2015 was seen as an opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of TB worldwide and the status of TB prevention and control efforts, highlighting WHO's vision of a world free of TB with zero deaths and suffering.

2017: Unite to end TB

World TB 2017 focused on joining efforts to raise awareness and eliminate tuberculosis.

2018: Wanted: Leaders for a TB-free world

World TB 2018 focused 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.

2019: It's time

The theme for World TB day 2019 was "It's time". The emphasis for this year's event is to pressure world leaders to "act on

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offic ...

commitments".

2020: It's time to End TB

The theme for World TB day 2020 was "It's time to End TB!"

2021: The clock is ticking

The theme of World TB Day 2021 was ‘The Clock is Ticking’, conveys the sense that the world is running out of time to act on the commitments to end TB made by global leaders.

2022: Invest to end TB. Save Lives

The theme of World TB Day 2022 is "Invest to End TB. Save Lives"

References

External links

* , International Committee of the Red Cross * * * * * * {{Authority control March observances Tuberculosis Health awareness days United Nations days World Health Organization