On March 24, K4Health recognizes World Tuberculosis Day, which raises awareness of the enormous toll caused by TB and encourages strategies and interventions to prevent, treat, and control the disease.  The 2011 World TB Day campaign focuses on individuals around the world who have found new ways to stop TB and can serve as an inspiration to others.

 

TB is a disease of poverty, often affecting young people in their most productive years. In 2009, 1.7 million people died from TB, equivalent to about 4700 deaths per day. Most TB deaths occur in developing countries, with over half of deaths in Asia. TB can affect the whole family, as individuals are often too sick to work and their families bear the cost of treatment and care.

 

Further, TB is a leading killer of people infected with HIV, who have weakened immune systems. People living with HIV are about 37 times more likely to develop TB than people without HIV. TB is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV in Africa and one in four global TB deaths is HIV-related. Without treatment, most people who are HIV-positive and suffering from TB will die within a few months.

 

K4Health encourages you to look at resources we have available on TB, including:

 

Tuberculosis Basics: This eLearning course offered by the Global Health eLearning Center provides basic information about tuberculosis and an overview of current strategies to control TB.
Tuberculosis Advanced Concepts: Follow-on course to Tuberculosis Basics that includes information about MDR and XDR TB, childhood TB, infection control, the International Standards for TB Care, and advocacy, communication, and social mobilization.
Tuberculosis and other HIV-related areas: Located in our Peace Corps-HIV/AIDS toolkit, resources include technical information on TB care and treatment, prevention and control.

 

The Global Health Program at the Center for Communication Programs participated in the Tuberculosis Control Program for the Central Asia Region from 2004-2009, a project funded by USAID and led by Project Hope to address TB services. CCP provided training and technical assistance in communication strategy design, materials development, implementation, and project evaluation.

 

You can also access USAID resources on TB, including the Fiscal Year 2009 Report to Congress: Building Partnerships to Control Tuberculosis - October 2010; USAID TB Country Profiles; USAID’s Fast Facts about Tuberculosis; and Key Achievements in Tuberculosis: Fiscal Year 2009.

 

Deaths from TB declined 35 percent between 1990 and 2009 while prevalence decreased 14 percent, largely due to global implementation of the WHO DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course) strategy in conjunction with public, private and community sectors.

 

WHO is working to halve TB deaths and prevalence by 2015 through its Stop TB Strategy and its support for the Global Plan to Stop TB. On World TB Day 2011, the Stop TB Partnership, a network of international organizations, countries, donors, and NGOs, enters its second year of a two-year campaign, “On the move against tuberculosis,” whose goal is to inspire innovation in TB research and care.

 

Events on and around World TB Day 2011 include scientific symposiums in Europe and Africa, an open dialogue and panel hosted by the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva, James Nachtwey's XDR TB photo exhibition in Moscow, and U.S. Senate and House briefings.

 

We hope that activities on World TB Day will help drive knowledge exchange on tuberculosis worldwide and enhance global efforts on strategies, tools, and interventions to prevent and treat the disease.

 

Kavitha Nallathambi is a Communications Specialist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for Communication Programs (CCP) and works on the Knowledge for Health Project, which is funded by USAID and implemented by CCP, Management Sciences for Health and FHI.