World Tuberculosis(TB) Day
What’s next in our fight to #EndTB?
This year’s World TB Day theme, from the Stop TB Partnership, is “Yes! We Can End TB”. It is a theme that brings hope and highlights the exceptional work being done worldwide to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and get TB eradication back on track.
- Yes! We Can End TB by ensuring the same kind of funding and actions for the development of new diagnostics, treatments and vaccines as we did for COVID-19.
- Yes! We Can End TB by scaling up TB infection testing and preventive treatment, prioritizing contacts and other eligible groups of people.
- Yes! We Can End TB by investing $5 billion annually to accelerate the R&D of new diagnostics, medicines and vaccines.
Can we change how we #EndTB?
While the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the world’s attention and other chronic diseases continue to demand our attention, the annual World TB Day reminds us of TB’s catastrophic health, social and economic consequences. This ancient disease killed 1.6 million people in 2021 and devastated more lives.
What changes or improvements in TB testing, treatment or care would you like to see that will help tackle TB?
Professor Wang Linghang, Director, Emergency Department of Infection, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, China.
“In TB prevention and control, we ought to focus on strengthening the detection of TB. By extending TB screening through more sensitive diagnostics, we can better detect TB patients at risk of transmission within their families and community. At the same time, we can remove the risk of transmission by detecting those who have latent TB infection to prevent the reactivation of latent to active TB.”
Dr Kim Chang-Ki, Diagnostic Laboratory Medicine, Seoul Clinical Laboratories, South Korea
“South Korea is setting a bold goal of reducing the number of TB cases to 20 per 100,000 population in the next five years. These are not easy targets. Preventing TB through latent TB infection control is critical for achieving these new targets. We are implementing latent TB control initiatives according to the risk of TB infection and progression.”
How is the COVID-19 pandemic still affecting our ability to #EndTB?
Associate Professor Jackrapong Bruminhent, MD. Division of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi, Thailand, Bangkok.
“We are seeing growing cases of COVID-TB co-infection. We have not fully understood the immune-pathological interaction between these two diseases and the drivers of COVID-19 and TB disease mortality. It is critical that we put a lid on this “cursed duet”, especially in TB-endemic countries where incidences of latent TB are high. Case finding, early detection, diagnosis and treatment of latent TB is now paramount to reversing the TB prevalence.”
According to the World Health Organization, 66 million lives have been saved by global efforts to #EndTB
This is Tenzin’s story.
On this World TB Day, we honor TB survivors by amplifying their personal stories and echoing the call worldwide for early and accurate TB diagnosis.
Now that his TB experiences are behind him, Tenzin shares his story to help raise awareness about TB to address stigma.
What is our role in #EndTB?
At Oxford Immunotec, we have a front-seat view of how the TB epidemic is fought in Asia. We asked some team members to share their roles in fighting this ancient disease.