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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.
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