Geneva, Switzerland - 3 March 2017
"The events of this week showed what an amazing community we are and how strong we can be when we are united. A great sense of unity and shared vision, a huge desire to change and to be bold, ambitious and daring gives us all the hope that if we really want, we will end TB. This year marks 135 years since Robert Koch announced in 1882 to the Berlin Physiological Society that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis. 135 years have passed and we still have to battle this bacteria, which is becoming more and more resistant. 135 years of trying to make our voices heard! Let’s make this year World TB day a success. Together!"
- Dr Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership.
The Stop TB Partnership today launched its World TB Day website which has the full spectrum of downloadable communications materials. World TB Day is organized each year on 24 March and aims to build awareness on TB. It is an opportunity for people everywhere to join the fight against TB, sharing information about TB and urging governments to take action. In 2017, World TB Day, under the overarching theme of ‘Unite to End TB’, is an important milestone on the road to the Global Ministerial Conference on TB in Moscow in November 2017, the UN High Level Meeting on TB in 2018 and looking further towards ending TB.
In an attempt to educate the general public in order to close the knowledge and awareness gap, the Stop TB Partnership this year will focus its efforts on communicating important but often misunderstood facts about TB which prevent people from seeking treatment or act as a barrier to efforts in reducing stigmatization of people infected and affected by the disease. Understanding such drivers of myths and misconceptions is important for improving information, education and communication efforts.
We are happy to share with you that the Stop TB Partnership’s World TB Day website has the full suite of communications products (in all six official UN languages) available for partners to download, to adapt and use for media outreach:
What we hope you can do:
What we are doing in Geneva:
Let’s make this World TB Day a big success!