Every year, WHO commemorates World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 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 4,000 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. 

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 States came together and made strong commitments to end TB at the first-ever UN High Level Meeting in September 2018.

Under the theme ‘It’s Time’, the spotlight this year is on urgently accelerating the TB response to save lives and end suffering, building on high level commitments by heads of States at the 2018 UN High-Level Meeting on TB.

India committed to eliminate TB by 2025

India is committed to eliminate the prevalence of TB by 2025, President Ram Nath Kovind said in his message on the eve of the World Tuberculosis Day.

“I appreciate the ministry of health and family welfare for implementing the National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Tuberculosis Elimination (2017-2025),” the President said.

The ministry deserves to be complimented for working tirelessly to improve the quality of treatment and to create comprehensive support systems for TB patients, he said.

“On this occasion, I appeal to all the stakeholders to come together to reinforce the efforts in ‘TB Harega Desh Jeetega’ campaign and to ensure that it truly becomes a people’s movement,” the President added.

Facts on TB

Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable disease that is a major cause of ill health, one of the top 10 causes of death worldwide and the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent (ranking above HIV/AIDS). 

It is caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which is spread when people who are sick with TB expel bacteria into the air; for example, by coughing. 

It typically affects the lungs (pulmonary TB) but can also affect other sites (extrapulmonary TB). About a quarter of the world’s population is infected with M. tuberculosis and thus at risk of developing TB disease.

With a timely diagnosis and treatment with first-line antibiotics for six  months, most people who develop TB can be cured and onward transmission of infection curtailed.

The number of TB cases occurring each year (and thus the number of TB-related deaths) can also be driven down by reducing the prevalence of health-related risk factors for TB (eg: smoking, diabetes and HIV infection), providing preventive treatment to people.

Nearly 1.5 million people died from TB in 2018.

Geographically, most TB cases in 2018 were in the WHO regions of Southeast Asia (44 per cent), Africa (24 per cent) and the Western Pacific (18 per cent). 

Eight countries accounted for two-thirds of the global total, including India (27 per cent), China (9 per cent) and Indonesia (8 per cent).

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