March 24 - Reach, Treat, Cure Everyone - World TB Day

World TB Day 2015: "Reach the 3 Million: Reach, Treat, Cure Everyone"

Every year, on 24 March, the world marks World TB Day, one of the world's top health challenges with 9 million new TB cases and the deaths of nearly 1.5 million people each year. The Day is an occasion to mobilize political and social commitment for further progress towards eliminating TB as a public health burden.

For World TB Day 2015, we are calling on all partners to continue to call for a global effort to continue their commitment to find, treat and cure all people with TB and accelerate progress towards the bold goal of ending TB by 2035.

Reach, Treat, Cure Everyone

Although we have seen progress in TB, it has been at an unacceptably low rate of decline in incidence per year. Mark Dybul, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has previously said that if we the world was able to cure AIDS in six months, the world would never accept a decline of 2% a year.

To address TB, there is a critical need to address weaknesses in countries' health systems, and we need sustained and predictable funding, political engagement and support. We need countries to step up their domestic investments in TB in a cost efficient manner - in prioritized interventions that work and show impact. We need communities, people affected and civil society in the driving seat.

This World TB Day 2015 will signal a renewed effort to alert Ministers of Health to the global, regional and national TB emergency, emphasizing the unacceptable situation that many cases of TB go undiagnosed, untreated or are not cured. It is a chance to engage with National TB Programme Managers and other stakeholders to improve the quality of existing programmes and the access to care and services.

This year's campaign also provides a platform to highlight the urgent need to fill the current funding gap of US$ 2 billion per year for TB interventions and the immediate need to fill the US$ 1.39 billion annual gap for research and development. The importance of eliminating access barriers to all recommended TB diagnostics and drugs and addressing TB and MDR-TB as global health security threats will also be highlighted, along with the fact that TB needs to be everyone's concern and the urgent need to therefore involve everyone in the fight against the disease.

World TB Day 2015 Messaging Framework

American Air & Water, Inc. is a member of Stop TB Partnership since 2007.