World TB Day is commemorated on March 24 following the discovery of the bacterium causing the disease by German physician, Dr Robert Koch. This year’s theme, ‘It’s Time!’, allows for many aspects around the disease to be promoted.
The Stop TB Partnership has constructed several statements to show how the theme could be effectively used as a call to action, such as:
- it’s time to now your TB status
- it’s time for a world without TB
- it’s time to keep the promises made at the United Nations High Level Meeting on TB
The final bullet is probably the most poignant.
In September 2018, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly hosted the first-ever High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB in New York. After being in office for roughly seven months, President Cyril Ramaphosa was urged to attend, following civil society groups stressing that more heads of state, ministers and leaders become fully invested in ending the scourge of TB.
The theme for the meeting was “United to end tuberculosis: an urgent global response to a global epidemic”. At the meeting, a declaration was taken, and a commitment was made to ensure that 40 million people with TB receive the care they need by 2022, along with providing preventative treatment to protect a further 30 million people from developing TB.
Our top 10 articles for World TB Day 2019 shows the never-ending war on the deadly disease, because while major progress has been made in the fight to eradicate the diseases, there is still so much to do.
Education around the disease and how best to protect yourself from it, or get treatment for it, is worth spreading.
1. What is tuberculosis (TB) and what causes it?
5. How can tuberculosis be prevented?
6. Major battles have been won against TB. But the war isn’t over
7. Historic UN TB declaration ‘falls short’ say activists
8. Drug-resistant TB can be cured in less than half the time, new study shows
9. Don’t let TB go untreated during pregnancy
HIV-positive pregnant women with TB are encouraged to adhere to treatment because the disease can be successfully treated in pregnancy.
10. Poor care and stigma are barriers to SA’s treatment of children with TB
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