New Delhi (NVI): TB remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer, says WHO, as the World Tuberculosis Day 2020 is being observed across the globe today.
Each day, over 4,000 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease, says the global health organisation.
Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 58 million lives since the year 2000, says WHO.
World Tuberculosis Day (TB) Day is commemorated on March 24 every year to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic.
On this day in 1882, Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.
WHO has also called Tuberculosis India’s biggest killer. A large number of people lose their lives due to the disease in the country.
Tuberculosis claimed a total of 1.5 million lives worldwide in the year 2018, thereby proving that it is still extremely prevalent and challenging to fight. It is one of the top 10 causes of death across the world.
This year’s theme for World TB Day is- ‘It’s Time’, under which WHO is motivating global leaders to scale up access to prevention and treatment.
TB is one of the deadliest and most infectious diseases in the world. But the biggest attribute that we have is the fact that it is preventable and curable.
To accelerate the TB response in countries to reach targets – Heads of State came together and made strong commitments to end TB at the first-ever UN High Level Meeting in September 2018, WHO said in its report.
