24 March 2003

World TB Day 2003 is only 50 days away!

In this World TB Day Alert, you will find information on how to use TB patient advocates in your World TB Day 2003 events and in your year-round educational and advocacy activities.

This year’s World TB Day theme, "People with TB", and slogan, "DOTS cured me – it will cure you too!", are designed to focus attention on former and current TB patients.

We know that in most places, people are more receptive to hearing TB messages from cured TB patients because they are members of the community who have personal experience with the disease and are living proof that TB can be cured.

Transforming former TB patients into TB advocates by giving them the authority and the opportunity to tell their stories with the support of TB partners, national programmes or non-governmental organizations will:

• Encourage other potential TB sufferers to come forward to be diagnosed and cured;
• Give people proof that DOTS saves lives;
• Help to end the social stigma that many TB patients experience by showing that anyone can get TB and that it is curable;
• Provide a human face to TB disease;
• Help people to understand more about TB symptoms, treatment and prevention.

Find former TB patients who are eager to be advocates for TB control. It is a good idea to locate a range of TB advocates to represent a variety of patients – young and old, male and female, well-known and regular citizens, from different socioeconomic backgrounds, etc. Look for people who are willing and capable to talk to groups and/or the media and who speak clearly and compellingly about their experiences.

You can involve TB advocates in your World TB Day 2003 events and in your year-round advocacy and educational activities in a variety of ways. Invite TB advocates to:

• Speak briefly of their experiences at press conferences;
• Talk to students at schools and universities – particularly if they are students themselves;
• Share their stories with political leaders and policy-makers at TB briefings;
• Address gatherings of people at World TB Day 2003 events;
• Provide testimonial support at the opening of new DOTS clinics;
• Take part in radio, television or newspaper interviews;
• Participate in photo opportunities;
• Help start up patient advocacy groups to support new TB patients;
• Act as TB information sources in their communities;
• Provide a point of access to their various contacts – for example, their workplaces, women’s organizations, sports clubs, religious groups or particular neighbourhoods;
• Give permission for their stories to be used in advocacy materials and other communications products;
• Send their stories to the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat: /events/world_tb_day/2003/Alerts/Alert_13Jan03.htm; and, of course,
• Volunteer as treatment partners.

Wherever you can, create opportunities for TB advocates to participate in educational and advocacy events at the local, regional and national levels. The involvement of these valuable allies in TB control is critical to helping increase case detection around the world.

• You can find the Image Library at: http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/library.html
• You can find the entire content of this web alert on the Stop TB website at:  www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2003/default.asp
• For more information on planning for World TB Day 2003, consult "Guidelines for Social Mobilization: Planning World TB Day", available online at: www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2000/assets/documents/tbguide.pdf or order a hard copy from the CDS Documents Centre by emailing to: CDSDOC@who.int .
• For more information on World TB Day 2003, visit our website at: www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2003/default.asp or contact the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat at: stoptbadvocacy@who.int.