The World Tuberculosis Day is being observed across the world on March 24.
- The theme of World TB Day 2021 is ‘The Clock is Ticking‘.
- The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.
- TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers. Each day, nearly 4000 lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.
The WHO has launched the End TB Strategy, which has following targets:
- 95% reduction by 2035 in number of TB deaths compared with 2015.
- 90% reduction by 2035 in TB incidence rate compared with 2015.
- Zero TB-affected families facing catastrophic costs due to TB by 2035.
According to the Government of India report, the incidence of TB per 1,00,000 population has been reduced from 234 in 2012 to 193 in 2019. The mortality due to TB per 1,00,000 populations for India reduced from 42 in 2012 to 33 in 2019. (https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=1593231)
