24 March 2003

World TB Day 2003 is only 30 days away!

In this World TB Day Alert, you will find suggestions on how to develop a press kit for media. In particular we will focus on what the key elements of a press kit should be, how best to use them and who to target.

The media are a key vehicle to get your messages out to the general public. If you communicate with them effectively and focus on the key messages journalists, can become your best allies in raising awareness of TB and bringing renewed attention to DOTS. PR coverage in well-known publications doesn’t only get your message across, it also provides credibility for your message. Key elements to ensure you harness the media effectively are:

• Choosing the right media to target depending on your message,
• Developing strong and focused materials for media on TB and World TB day.
• Creating appropriate opportunities to interact with the media either on a "one-to-one" basis or with a larger group.

This update leading up to World TB Day reviews how you can do some of these things and get strong articles on TB on the occasion of World TB Day.

Choosing the right media

The type of media you plan to target should be chosen depending on the activities and messages you would like them to write about. This will vary depending on the type of World TB Day events you are running. For example, national media will be interested on what national activities are taking place whilst a local paper may be interested in the activity taking place in just one region or town. Some examples of print, radio and TV media you could consider targeting as part of your World TB Day activities include:

• National daily media
• Regional daily media
• Daily, weekly and monthly publications – particularly if they are dedicated to health or have health sections.
• Daily news programs on the radio and TV (both national and regional)
• Specialists health programs radio and TV
• News agencies in your country. They can then spread the news onto the journalists themselves.

Developing strong focused materials

Journalists are always very busy and receive hundreds of requests to write articles each day. In order to get their attention it is therefore very important to have short and focused materials with an clear headline that get the message across quickly and effectively. A good way to do this is by developing a press pack carefully targeted to the needs of the type of publications you are targeting and with all the information required to write about your TB activities concisely in one place. A good press pack will normally include:

1. A press notice which gives the date and main elements of World TB Day events should be sent to media in advance (2-3 weeks). This is to invite journalists to cover the story and gives them enough notice to prepare their stories and attend planned events. A sample press notice for immediate release is attached.
2. A press release (1.5 pages maximum) that outlines the news you would like them to write about. The most important part of the release are the headline and the first paragraph. They really need to attract the reader’s attention, get the message across and engage them enough so they want to read the rest of the press release. A global press release carrying Dr Lee’s message that can be used in your country will be available on 17 March.
3. Background materials on TB and World TB Day and the spread of TB in your country. A sample fact sheet on the global impact of TB is attached below. If you want to use this sample when interacting with journalists you should add your country’s TB data at the bottom of the fact sheet where indicated in red.
4. Background materials on your organisation and the work you are doing. Keep these short and direct - a maximum two paragraphs. An example of the Stop TB Partnership background is included in the sample materials below.
5. Contact details of the person handling media relations in your organization. This should be someone fluent in the local language and able to speak on behalf of the organization.
6. Images for journalists. If you are targeting TV or print media it is really useful if you can include photos or a short film on TB. This way if the media use images as part of their articles or TV programs they are likely to use what you provide them with. Often if the images are good they may even improve your chances of obtaining media coverage of your story. Images and video to distribute to journalists on world TB day cane be found:

• Images of TB patients can be downloaded from the WHO image library at http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/library.html or by contacting Gary Hampton, tel +33 677842724 (mob), email: ghampton@iuatld.org.

All this information together will make up the press pack. It should be short and essentially publicize the activities you are running on World TB Day. A sample press release on World TB Day, background on TB, World TB and the Stop TB partnership are attached below. You can re-use these as part of your World TB Day activities if you want but please remember to supplement the information with your local data. This is really important, as it will make the local media more interested in writing about your activities.

Creating opportunities to interact with the media

If you would like journalists to write about TB on World TB Day you should approach them as soon as possible, but only to brief them about your WTBD program. If you give the news story too far in advance you run the risk that the story will be written up too soon. When this happens often other journalists will no longer write about your story, as they will consider it old news. To avoid this situation, one would in general give journalists the news story a minimum of one day before (if they write for a daily publication) or a week or even month before (if they work for a weekly or monthly publication). For World TB Day the stories should not be written in media until after 10 am Manila time on the 24^th of March. Any materials sent to journalists before that date should clearly state this information is 'embargoed' (not publishable) until that time.

Once you have decided who and when you would like to contact you will need to decide on how to approach them. There are many ways in which to approach the media. At all these events you should handout your press materials and talk to journalists focusing on the content of the materials. Some of the common approaches to consider are:

1. Organizing a meeting or press event for journalists to come and hear about your project. This can be very effective, but is also very time-consuming to organize. It will require you to identify a venue and speakers and to invite journalists well in advance of the event. It can be very difficult to attract journalists to such an event so if you decide to arrange one you should make sure the news you are presenting is interesting enough. Sometimes it is worth checking this with friendly journalists before starting the meeting itself, making sure the information remains confidential – you cannot risk that they'll write about the news in advance of the event, otherwise this may make the event itself redundant.
2. Meeting journalists one at a time. Meeting with media in person and one at a time can be an effective replacement for a press event if media interest in your story is limited to a selected number of publications or when you would like them to write longer articles. These kind of meeting in fact give you a better opportunity to sell the story you have to tell in a different way and to get journalists to cover it in more depth.
3. Mailing press materials to media. If you do not have many media contacts a good start is just to mail a copy of the press materials to as many media as possible. In this case it is really important that your materials are attractively designed and will catch the attention of the recipient. Following up with a phone call to all the publications that you have mailed is always helpful and depending on how interesting your story is you may get some coverage, or if not, at least some good contacts for next time.
4. Arrange interviews with patients. As the theme for World TB Day this year is people with TB and patients who have been cured by DOTS, you may want to arrange interviews for journalists with TB patients. This is a great way to get the key messages across and engage readers in the disease.

Make the most of these powerful tools that you have at hand!

We also ask you to send samples of any media coverage you obtain on World TB Day to the Stop TB Partnership Secretariat.

10 Million Patients Have Been Successfully Treated

Ten years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared TB to be a Global Emergency, the new WHO Director-General nominee, Dr Jong Wook Lee, will address a press conference on World TB Day in London about the encouraging progress that has been made since then against the disease. Dr Lee headed WHO's Stop TB Department until his nomination as director-general in January.

He will announce the crossing of a historic milestone: Since the WHO declaration, 10 million TB patients worldwide have now been successfully treated under DOTS*, the internationally recommended strategy for controlling tuberculosis. More than 95% of these patients have been in developing countries.

Dr Lee will also discuss the theme of this year's World TB Day, People with TB, and the slogan, "DOTS cured me – it could cure you too." These highlight the importance of involving TB patients as advocates in national programs to motivate others to seek diagnosis and treatment, and to reduce stigma from the disease.

TB patients around the world will join Dr Lee to mark the day and call on governments everywhere to intensify efforts and funding to stop the TB epidemic. Special events will be held to commemorate the "10 Years -10 million patients" milestone in Manila, New Delhi, Port Elizabeth, Cairo, London and Washington.

Local Activities for World TB Day

1. For more information, contact details and profiles of TB patients in the UK and around the world, please call Michael Luhan, Stop TB Partnership Secretariat (Geneva), tel +41 22 791 1379 or +41 79 509 0643 (mob);
2. The WHO Global Tuberculosis Control Report for 2003 provides an update on global and national trends and profiles of the 22 high-TB burden countries that account for 80% of global TB cases. Copies will be available on the 24 March.
3. TB images can be downloaded from the WHO image library at http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/library.html or by contacting the library manager, Gary Hampton, tel +33 677842724, email: ghampton@iuatld.org. For World TB Day video footage of TB activities in South-East Asia, South Asia, Africa and Europe please contact the WHO audiovisual unit: Marion Lindsay, tel +41 79 475 5512, email: lindsaym@who.int
4. The Stop TB Partnership was established by WHO in 1998 as a broad-based social movement to combat TB. In 2001 the Partnership launched the Global Plan to Stop TB, which sets global targets to identify 70% of all people with infectious TB and cure 85% of those detected by 2005.

The TB challenge

More people die from tuberculosis (TB) than from any other curable infectious disease in the world. Every day, more than 20,000 people develop active TB and 5,000 people die from the disease. One third of the world’s entire population is infected with the TB bacteria.

TB is caused by Myobacterium tuberculosis and is spread through the air like the common cold. If left untreated, one person with infectious TB will infect on average 10-15 other people every year.

TB infects people in every country of the world, both rich and poor alike. However, 22 countries account for 80% of the global TB burden. Many of these high-TB burden countries are particularly hard hit by poverty and the resulting malnutrition, poor sanitation and overcrowding that contribute to spread of the disease.

--------------------------Add here a paragraph on TB in your country------------------------------------

DOTS – the cure for TB

TB is curable. DOTS – the internationally recommended strategy for TB control – cures patients, saves lives, prevents the development and spread of drug resistance, and reduces disease transmission. Widespread use of DOTS could save millions of lives.

With DOTS, TB patients receive free drugs and are observed taking every single dose for the first two months of their six- to eight-month treatment regimens. This ensures that TB patients take all their drugs, and it also means that many can be treated at home instead of in clinics or hospitals.

In 1993, the World Bank hailed DOTS as "one of the most cost-effective of all existing health interventions." According to 2001 data, 32% of people with TB are being treated under DOTS.

Access to DOTS for TB patients is limited due to insufficient resources, inadequate health care infrastructure, unreliable drug supplies, poor management, remote locations and challenging geography, homelessness, and social stigmas that prevent people – particularly women – from seeking treatment.

 World TB Day 2003

The theme for World TB Day 2003 is People with TB and the slogan is "DOTS cured me – it will cure you too!" This highlights the need to involve people with TB as advocates and active participants in TB control. Planned activities for 2003 will emphasize mobilizing TB patients and people who have been cured of TB – as well as those in the health sector – to advocate for government action, educate communities, and put a human face on TB to reduce social stigmas associated with the disease.

The 10:10 milestones

World TB Day 2003 marks the 10^th anniversary of the year that WHO declared TB a Global Emergency. It also marks the crossing of a major milestone in modern TB control: According to WHO, 10 million TB patients have now been successfully treated under DOTS.

The Global Partnership to Stop TB

The Stop TB Partnership was established in 2000 by the World Health Organization as a broad-based social movement to control TB, and today has more than 250 member organizations. Two political milestones, the Amsterdam Declaration (2000) and the Washington Commitment (2001), endorsed the need to rapidly expand DOTS and reach the targets set by the World Health Assembly. Governments of the 22 high-burden countries that account for 80% of global TB cases agreed to these targets. In 2001 the Stop TB Partnership launched the Global Plan to Stop TB – a detailed roadmap for eliminating TB during the first half of the 21^st century. Over 150 experts in TB control, public health and development from around the world contributed to the Plan, which is endorsed by WHO, the World Bank and the other Stop TB Partnership organizations.

The global targets in the Plan were set by the World Health Assembly to eliminate TB as a public health problem by the year 2050. Based on an assessment of the TB threat using the most current statistical evidence, it describes what action is already being taken and the resources needed in the next five years to accelerate efforts to meet the global TB control targets. The targets are to:

• Identify 70% of all infectious cases of TB and to cure 85% of identified cases by the year 2005 through accelerated efforts at country and global level.

• By 2010 to reduce the global burden of TB (deaths and prevalence) to 50% of 2000 levels.

If the targets are reached, by 2020 the world will have averted 25 million deaths from TB, prevented 50 million new TB cases and halted the spread of drug-resistant strains. By 2050 the global incidence of TB disease will be less than 1 per million population. Broadly the strategy is:

• To expand DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, Short-course), the internationally recommended TB control strategy, to ensure that all people with TB get the right diagnosis and complete their treatment;

• To adapt this strategy to meet the growing challenge of TB/HIV co-infection and drug resistance, and

• To develop new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines.

Stop TB Partners – nongovernment organizations, donor agencies, public health institutes, medical bodies, foundations and medical associations – support the aims and objectives of the Global Plan. They have as part of their mandate a programme of work to help achieve the Global Plan targets.

The Global Plan to Stop TB – eliminating TB as a public health problem

1. The Stop TB Partnership is a global movement with more than 250 members, including governments, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, donors and other TB advocates who work together in coordinating action and resources to control TB.
   
   
2. Over the next five years, TB partners around the world will continue to:

• Expand DOTS treatment services so that all those with TB have access to effective diagnosis and treatment;
• Adapt DOTS to meet the emerging challenges of HIV and TB drug resistance;
• Support research to develop better methods for diagnosis, new drugs and a new TB vaccine;
• Strengthen the Stop TB Partnership to accelerate progress and mobilize resources so that proven TB control strategies are effectively applied.

3. Global targets:

• 2005 - to identify 70% of all infectious TB cases in the world and cure 85% of those identified;
• 2010 - to reduce TB prevalence and deaths by 50% relative to 2000 levels;
• 2020 - to avert 25 million deaths from TB and prevent 50 million TB cases;
• 2050 - to eliminate TB as a public health problem.

• TB Advocacy - A Practical Guide 1999 (html) or (pdf file 7741kb) [WHO/TB/98.239] - This practical guide outlines four basic steps that are essential for an effective advocacy initiative--documenting the situation, packaging the message, working with the media and mobilizing others.  
• You can find the entire content of this web alert, as well as previous ones on the Stop TB website at: /events/world_tb_day/2003/Alerts/default.asp
• You can find the Stop TB Image Library at: http://www.worldlungfoundation.org/library.html
• 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: 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: stoptbinfo@who.int.