World Tuberculosis(TB) Day March 24

It's World TB day on Monday March 24,2014

It's a disease which was declared a global health emergency in 1993 but continues to grow unchecked even today.

Today tuberculosis causes the deaths of about 1.7 million people each year, mostly in the Third World

Tuberculosis is a disease that is curable and yet proving to be a huge challenge for India.

With thousands of Indians succumbing to TB every day, the country has the highest incidence of the disease as well as its multi-drug resistant (MDR) strain, the XXDR.

XXDR TB is a new and almost untreatable strain of the disease.

On the occasion of World TB Day 2010, the International Committee of the Red Cross(ICRC) declared that attempts to stem the spread of tuberculosis across the globe are likely to fall well short of what is needed unless authorities in affected countries significantly increase their efforts to stop the deadly disease from breeding inside prisons.

As a result of overcrowding and poor nutrition, TB rates in many prisons are 10 to 40 times higher than in the general public.

The ICRC has been fighting TB in prisons in the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Latin America, Asia Pacific and Africa for more than a decade, either directly or by supporting local programmes

Themes by year

• 2014: Reach the three million A TB test, treatment and cure for all.
• 2013: Stop TB in my lifetime Call for a world free of TB.
• 2012: Stop TB in my lifetime Call for a world free of TB.
• 2011: On the move against TB: Transforming the fight towards elimination
• 2010: On the move against TB: Innovate towards action
• 2009: I am stopping TB
• 2008: I am stopping TB
• 2007: TB anywhere is TB everywhere
• 2006: Actions for life – Towards a world free of TB
• 2005: Frontline TB care providers: Heroes in the fight against TB
• 2004: Every breath counts – Stop TB now!
• 2003: DOTS cured me – it will cure you too!
• 2002: Stop TB, fight poverty
• 2001: DOTS: TB cure for all
• 2000: Forging new partnerships to Stop TB
• 1999: Stop TB, use DOTS
• 1998: DOTS success stories
• 1997: Use DOTS more widely