World Tuberculosis (TB) Day 24 March

The Red Cross of North Macedonia celebrates the World Tuberculosis Day every year on 24 March to raise public awareness on TB continuing to be a major global health problem.

Tuberculosis (TB) kills around 4,000 people every day, among them 700 children. That means that 3 people die from TB every minute! But, with timely action, we can put an end to this preventable and curable disease.

 In 2018, at the United Nations, all world leaders committed to taking specific actions by 2022. According to the latest TB surveillance and monitoring report (WHO/ECDC) despite of decrease in burden of TB and reduction of the TB incidence rate, around 20 000 people still die of TB each year in Europe region, every third TB patient has a multidrug-resistant form of the disease and treatment success rates are suboptimal.

This year, we commemorate the 139 th anniversary of Dr. Robert Koch’s announcement in 1882 of his discovery of the TB bacillus, the cause of TB.

World Tuberculosis Day 2021 is an opportunity to focus on successes and achievements, while voicing a warning about the twin threat of drug-resistant TB and the toll taken by the COVID-19 pandemic.

If we want to #EndTB by 2030, #TheClockIsTicking to reach the #TBTargets2022.