March 24 designated as World TB Day

Organizers aim to reinvigorate the global fight against the deadly disease.

The annual worldwide event to raise awareness about the global tuberculosis epidemic and efforts to eliminate the disease kicks off on March 24.

“On the move against TB: Transforming the fight towards elimination” is the theme of World TB Day 2011 and is intended to reflect renewed momentum to approach the global problem of TB with greater intensity and purpose, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

World TB Day commemorates the date in 1882 when Robert Koch, MD, announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Health agencies from around the world, including CDC, NIH and WHO, announced that they plan to highlight TB-related problems and solutions and to support worldwide TB-control efforts. In the United States, the theme for World TB Day is “TB elimination: Together We Can!”

Approximately one-third of the world’s population is currently infected with TB, but nearly 90% of those infected with M. tuberculosis never develop active disease. Those with active disease total more than 14 million, according to WHO estimates for 2009, resulting in a total of 1.7 million deaths, or 4,600 deaths daily. Patients with TB and other comorbid conditions are more likely to develop active TB and eventually die; TB has become the leading cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS, according to the NIAID.

WHO is working to cut TB prevalence rates and deaths by half by 2015, according to a WHO press release.

Although TB control programs have led to a decline in cases worldwide, the emergence and spread of drug-resistant strains of TB challenge the way TB is diagnosed and treated. Extensively drug-resistant TB remains rare, but has been confirmed in 58 countries, including the United States, and is likely present in many more. It has become necessary not just to identify the infection but also to determine the proper therapy for patients at the earliest stages of disease, according to the NIAID.

For more information:

Please visit the CDC website: http://www.cdc.gov/tb/events/WorldTBDay/default.htm

WHO website: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_tb_day/en/index.html#

The NIH website: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2011/Pages/WorldTBDay11.aspx

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