The day was held on Wednesday, March 26.
World TB Day, falling on March 24 each year, is designed to build public awareness that tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world, 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.
Globally, TB is a leading cause of death from an infectious disease worldwide, second only to AIDS. It is also known as a disease of poverty, affecting mainly young adults in their most productive years, with two-thirds of cases estimated to occur among people aged 15 to 59. In 2011 there were 8.7 million new cases of TB and 1.4 million deaths (this includes 430 000 deaths among people who were HIV-positive). The vast majority of deaths from TB, over 95 percent, are in the developing world.
The latest report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) shows that all six WHO regions are on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of falling TB incidence rates by 2015. Worldwide, mortality from TB has fallen by 41 percent since 1990. Despite this progress, the global burden of TB remains enormous.
A call was made for all to help fight TB, people were encouraged to have proper information about the disease because it can be cured.
Sammy Nkabinde an official thanked the Dot supporters for their commitment and support to TB patients, however he was concerned about the defaulter rate in eMalahleni.
Messages of support were received from other organisation that partners, home base care, sisters, New Start, Anglo and others.
Executive mayor of eMalahleni Cllr Salome Sithole also raised her concern about the disease and alluded to the fact that the country was on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target of falling TB incidence rates by 2015. Cllr Sithole was also concern about the stigma towards people who contracted the disease.
“As we all know TB is linked to HIV but we need not assume that people who have TB are also HIV positive. Even HIV is manageable but take care of yourself, do not expose yourself. I know of people who are living healthy lives for the past 20 years after being diagnosed. Lets live productive lives. We are a mining municipality, people from all walks of life come to our city.”
Cllr Sithole also thanked the organisers of the campaign, as they are important to make people aware of their status, she encourage people to know their status.
It was also reported that they were many challenges in reversing the spread of tuberculosis. In the last number of years they have seen an increase in the number of TB patients diagnosed with multidrug-resistant TB. The spread of this form of TB has greatly accelerated in recent years, but testing and treatment uptake remain low. In 10 years, Global Fund-supported programs have treated 64 000 cases of multidrug-resistant TB, but this is only a small percentage of the estimated need.
