World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 2019: History, Theme and Significance of This Day Dedicated the Deadly Bacterial Infection
TB is one of the world's deadliest infectious killers that takes away about 4500 lives each day and about 30000 people fall ill with this curable and preventable disease.
The world is suffering from a large burden of Tuberculosis. Today on World Tuberculosis (TB) Day that is observed every year on the 24th of March we collectively work towards raising awareness of the consequences of the fatal disease. TB is one of the world's deadliest infectious killers that takes away about 4500 lives each day and about 30000 people fall ill with this curable and preventable disease. There is a certain amount of global effort taken towards eradication of this disease, and the TB mortality rate has been reduced by 42 percent, a lot is yet to be done, especially in the developing and under developing countries. Since the year 2000, about 54 million lives have been saved to increased awareness and global efforts towards combatting the disease. WHO Calls Tuberculosis India’s Biggest Killer: 4 Ways To Stay Protected From TB.
World Tuberculosis Day 2019 History
On this day, March 24th in the year 1882 Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB. The discovery leads to the diagnosis and cure of this disease and hence this day is observed as World Tuberculosis Day 2019. To hasten the TB response in countries Heads of State came together and made firm commitments to end TB at the first-ever UN High-Level Meeting in September 2018, as per WHO.
World Tuberculosis Day 2019 Theme
The theme of World TB Day 2019 - 'It’s time.' The theme sheds light at the urgency to act towards the disease. It indicates that it's time to work towards 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-centred TB response according to WHO.
World Tuberculosis Day 2019 Significance
It is essential that public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB so that efforts to end the global TB epidemic is paced. World Health Organisation (WHO) urges the governments, affected communities, civil society organisations, health-care providers, and national/international partners to unite forces under the banner "Find. Treat. All. #EndTB" to ensure no one is left behind and that no one is deprived of appropriate treatment.
"Find. Treat. All. #EndTB" is the initiative led by the World Health Organization (WHO), with the aim of accelerating the TB response and ensuring access to care, in line with WHO’s overall drive towards Universal Health Coverage.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 23, 2019 08:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).