World TB Day 2015

"Reach the 3 Million: Reach, Treat, Cure Everyone"

 Every year, on 24 March, the world marks World TB Day (WTBD), one of the world's top health challenges with 9 million new TB cases and the deaths of nearly 1.5 million people each year. The Day is an occasion to mobilize political and social commitment for further progress towards eliminating TB as a public health burden.

For  World TB Day 2015, we are calling on all partners to continue to call for a global effort  to continue their commitment to find, treat and cure all people with TB and accelerate progress towards the bold goal of ending TB by 2035.

World TB Day, 24 March, is an opportunity to raise awareness about the burden of tuberculosis (TB) worldwide and the status of TB prevention and control efforts. WHO’s End TB Strategy envisions a world free of TB with zero deaths, disease and suffering. It sets targets and outlines actions for governments and partners to provide patient-centred care, pursue policies and systems that enable prevention and care, and drive research and innovations needed to end the epidemic and eliminate TB. On World TB Day 2015, WHO calls on governments, affected communities, civil society organizations, health-care providers, and international partners to join the drive to roll out this strategy and to reach, treat and cure all those who are ill today.

10 facts of TB

1.     In 2013, 9 millon people fell ill with TB

But tuberculosis is curable & preventable disease

2.     A total of 1.5 million people died from TB in 2013

Tb remains one of the world’s top infectious killlers disease. About 95% of TB deaths occur in low-and middle income countries and it among the top 5 causes of death among women aged 15-44.

3.   80 000 HIV-negative children died due to TB globally in 2013

Childhood TB is often overlooked by health providers and can be difficult to diagnosis and treat. There are about 10 million orphan children as a result of adult TB deaths.

4.   TB is the leading killer of people living with HIV

About one in four deaths among people with HIV is due to TB. But about 4.8 million lives were saved over nine years (2005 to 2013) through coordinated TB and HIV services to detect, prevent and treat the dual infections.

5.   The number of people falling ill with TB is declining and the TB death rate dropped 45% since 1990

For example, Brazil and China have showed a sustained decline in TB cases over the past 20 years. In this period China has had an 80% decline in deaths

6.   About 80% of reported TB cases occurred in 22 countries in 2013

TB occurs in every part of the world. Nearly 60% of new TB cases occurred in the South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions in 2013. The greatest rate of new cases per capita was in the African region. No country has ever eliminated this disease.

7.   Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) does not respond to standard treatments and is difficult and costly to treat

MDR-TB is a form of TB that is present in virtually all countries surveyed by WHO. The primary cause of multi-drug resistance is the inappropriate or incorrect use of anti-TB drugs

8.   An estimated 480 000 people developed MDR-TB in 2013

In some cases an even more severe form of multi-drug resistant TB may develop with bad treatment. Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is a form of TB that responds to even fewer available medicines.

9.   About 37 million lives were saved worldwide between 2000 and 2013 through TB diagnosis and treatment

86% of people who developed TB and were put on treatment in 2012 were successfully treated.

10.         The world is on track to achieve the global TB target set for 2015 in the Millennium Development Goals

The target for TB in the Millennium Development Goals is to halt and reverse global incidence.

Reach, Treat, Cure Everyone: main messaging

Although we have seen progress in TB, it has been at an unacceptably low rate of decline in incidence per year. Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has previously said that if we the world was able to cure AIDS in six months, the world would never accept a decline of 2% a year.

To address TB, there is a critical need to address weaknesses in countries' health systems, and we need sustained and predictable funding, political engagement and support. We need countries to step up their domestic investments in TB in a cost efficient manner - in prioritized interventions that work and show impact. We need communities, people affected and civil society in the driving seat.

This World TB Day 2015 will signal a renewed effort to alert Ministers of Health to the global, regional and national TB emergency, emphasizing the unacceptable situation that many cases of TB go undiagnosed, untreated or are not cured. It is a chance to engage with National TB Programme Managers and other stakeholders to improve the quality of existing programmes and the access to care and services.

This year's campaign also provides a platform to highlight the urgent need to fill the current funding gap of US$ 2 billion per year for TB interventions and the immediate need to fill the US$ 1.39 billion annual gap for research and development. The importance of eliminating access barriers to all recommended TB diagnostics and drugs and addressing TB and MDR-TB as global health security threats will also be highlighted, along with the fact that TB needs to be everyone's concern and the urgent need to therefore involve everyone in the fight against the disease.