The Day, which falls on March 24, will be celebrated in Ghana on Thursday, March 22, at the Mantse Agbona, James Town, Accra.

 

A release issued and signed by the President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) said the Association is this year partnering the National TB Control Programme to celebrate the Day on the local theme: “Wanted: Leaders for a TB Free Ghana. You Can Make History. End TB.”

 

The world theme focuses on building commitment to end TB, not only at the political level with Heads of State and Ministers of Health, but at all levels from DCEs, MCE, Regional Ministers, parliamentarians to community leaders, people affected with TB, civil society advocates, health workers, doctors, nurses, NGOs and other partners including the media.

 

It said the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health as well as its domestic and international partners and the global Stop TB Partnership are working together to eliminate this deadly disease. But we need your help.

 

World TB Day, which falls on March 24th each year, is designed to build public awareness that tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world, causing the deaths of nearly one-and-a-half million people each year, mostly in developing countries.

 

It commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus.

 

At the time of Kochs announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Kochs discovery opened the way towards diagnosing and curing TB.

 

The release noted that despite significant progress over the last decades, TB continues to be the top infectious killer worldwide, claiming over 4 500 lives a day. The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) poses a major health security threat and could risk gains made in the fight against TB

 

Although TB is preventable and curable, many people in Ghana still suffer from this disease. There are new emerging issues militating against TB control that require urgent actions.  There are also lessons learnt to accelerate ending the TB epidemic, and untold successes to be shared for multisectorial response.

 

The media as partners and leaders are wanted to end the TB Epidemic. Wanted: Leaders for a TB-Free World. You can make history, the release added.

 

GNA