Tuesday, March 17, 2015
World TB Day 2015: "Reach the 3 Million: Reach, Treat & Cure Everyone"
TB (tuberculosis) is one of the world’s top health challenges. There are 9 million new cases of TB each year. Three million of these people do not get the care they need and 1.5 million die each year. TB is a curable disease that kills 3 people every minute.
We are lucky in Canada because we have one of the lowest recorded rates of TB in the world but some populations in Canada are at higher risk of getting TB, for example, some of our aboriginal communities and people who were born outside Canada and have emigrated from countries where TB is widespread. At risk groups of people also include the homeless, federal inmates and people living with HIV infection. Many parts of the world are not so fortunate and have very high rates of TB with poor access to diagnosis, treatment and a cure.
Each year, the United Nations and its World Health Organization mark World Tuberculosis Day on March 24. World TB Day is a worldwide event that aims to raise public awareness of TB and the efforts that are being made to prevent and treat this disease. The Stop TB Partnership, hosted by the World Health Organization has over 1300 partners world-wide that work together with TB experts and partners from around the world. Their vision is to have a TB free world. Their mission is to stop the spread of TB by making sure every TB patient has access to effective diagnosis, treatment and cure through The Global Plan to Stop TB 2006-2015. This plan engages care providers, empowers people with TB, strengthens health systems, and provides high quality treatment, especially for the challenging cases involving co-infection with HIV and multiple drug resistance.
World TB Day is a chance for everyone: affected individuals, their communities, governments, organizations, health care providers, the private sector and international partners to take action that will help see that everyone has access to diagnosis, treatment and cure. Share a video about TB with your friends and co-workers to help start conversations about TB in your community. http://www.bccdc.ca/dis-cond/a-z/_t/Tuberculosis/TBVideos/TBGerm/TBGermEnglish.htm . Also check out these ways StopTb Partnership Canada is encouraging people to help. http://www.stoptb.ca/action.shtml
If you would like to know more about TB (tuberculosis) visit the website of Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit at www.healthunit.org.
SOURCE: Stop TB Partnership, UNOPS 2015 http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2015/ Public Health Agency of Canada: Making progress to stop tuberculosis - CCDR: volume 40-6, March 20, 2014, http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/ccdr-rmtc/14vol40/dr-rm40-06/dr-rm40-06-edit-eng.php
Contact: Margaret Hendriks, Manager Community Health Protection, 613-345-5685
Or Susan Healey, Communications Co-ordinator, 613-802-0550
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