World Tuberculosis Day, observed on March 24 each
year, is designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic of
tuberculosis (TB) and efforts to eliminate the disease.
Tuberculosis,
or TB, is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis,
which most commonly affects the lungs. It is transmitted from person to person
via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the disease. WHO
estimates that the largest number of new TB cases in 2005 occurred in
south-east Asia, which accounted for 34 percent of incident cases globally.
However, the estimated incidence rate in sub-Saharan Africa is nearly twice
that of south-east Asia.
It
causing the deaths of nearly one-and-a-half million people each year, mostly in
developing countries. It commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch
astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the
cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of Koch’s announcement in
Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one
out of every seven people. Koch’s discovery opened the way towards diagnosing
and curing TB.
World TB
Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World
Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day,
World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World
Hepatitis Day and World AIDS Day.
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