World Tuberculosis Day 2020

It's time to End TB!

lives saved between 2000 and 2018 by global efforts to end TB

people fell ill with TB in 2018

people died of TB in 2018

people fell ill with drug-resistant TB in 2018

Each year, we commemorate World Tuberculosis (TB) Day on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB, and to step up efforts to end the global TB epidemic. The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease. 

TB remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer. Each day, over 4000 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 58 million lives since the year 2000. To accelerate the TB response in countries to reach targets – Heads of State came together and made strong commitments to end TB at the first-ever UN High Level Meeting in September 2018.

Under the theme ‘It’s Time’, the spotlight this year is on urgently accelerating the TB response to save lives and end suffering, building on high level commitments by Heads of State at the 2018 UN High-Level Meeting on TB.

 

 

World TB Day Online Talk Show

Join the campaign

Use and adapt our campaign materials and make some noise to End TB. Campaign materials include social media tiles, infographics, posters and gifs. It’s time to play your part as an #EndTB influencer!

Campaign materials

Advocacy and communication toolkit

This toolkit contains materials and resources which can be used in the lead-up to and during World TB Day 2020 to support your activities and outreach.

Download the toolkit

Animated logo

TB Day 2019 Animated Logo

Spotlight on TB Prevention

TB infection is extremely common – about one-quarter of the world’s population is estimated to be infected. Preventive treatment for tuberculosis can stop TB infection from turning into disease.

It’s time! A campaign for action!

On World TB Day, WHO calls on everyone to keep the promise to:

  • Accelerate the End TB Response to reach the targets set in Sustainable Development Goals, WHO End TB Strategy, the Moscow Declaration to End TB and the political declaration of the UN High-Level Meeting on TB.
  • Diagnose and treat 40 million people with TB by 2022 including 3.5 million children and 1.5 million people with drug-resistant TB. This is in line with WHO’s overall drive towards Universal Health Coverage and the WHO Director General’s flagship initiative “Find. Treat. All. #EndTB” jointly with the Global Fund and Stop TB Partnership.
  • Reach 30 million people with TB preventive treatment by 2022 so that those people most at risk receive TB preventive treatment, including 24 million household contacts of TB patients - 4 million of whom are children under 5 - and 6 million people living with HIV.
  • Mobilize sufficient and sustainable financing to reach USD 13 billion a year to support efforts to end TB; for every USD 1 invested to end TB, USD 43 is returned as the benefits of a healthy functioning society (Economist/ Copenhagen Consensus).
  • Invest in TB research to reach at least USD 2 billion a year for better science, better tools and better delivery.


IT’S TIME TO KEEP OUR PROMISES. IT’S TIME TO TURN COMMITMENTS INTO ACTION. IT’S TIME FOR ACCOUNTABILITY.

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