Geneva, 19 December 2023 - The Stop TB Partnership is pleased to announce the theme for next year’s World TB Day 2024 on 24 March. Building on its massive uptake and success, the theme will remain
“Yes! We Can End TB”
The world has turned a new page in the fight against TB, following the September 2023 UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB. We recognize and commend the impressive global response, with 7.5 million people (out of the estimated 10.3 million) newly diagnosed with TB in 2022 - the highest number of people with TB ever diagnosed and treated in a year.
After discussions with partners, we unanimously decided to keep last year’s theme to keep the focus on the amazing work done in 2022 by High-Burden TB Countries to ensure access to more and more people with TB to new diagnostics, new treatment regimens, digital technology and artificial intelligence. The theme also centers on the increased engagement of those affected by TB, communities and civil society who are leading the movement towards ending this disease, and highlights our collective power to reach the 2027 HLM Political Declaration targets and end TB by 2030.
On World TB Day 2024, we will need everyone - political leaders, civil society, donors, researchers, TB communities, the private sector, and most importantly, each of us - to take this message one step further by saying what each of us is doing to help End TB, and challenging those in power to do the same.
With this hopeful and constructive theme come several key sub-themes areas, building on the Political Declaration's key commitments. These include increasing financing to scale up diagnosis, prevention and treatment, research and development of new tools including a new TB vaccine, access to new rapid molecular diagnosis and to new shorter and more efficient treatment regimens, TB prevention, TB in children, and strengthening, funding Communities, Rights and Gender (CRG), social protection and ending stigma. We will also focus on key cross-cutting areas that affect the TB response, including pandemic prevention preparedness and control (PPPR), antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), universal health coverage (UHC), climate change, and nutrition. We will also develop a set of tailored calls to action requesting key stakeholders to play their part in the achievement of the HLM commitments and targets while creating templates for partners to customize messages to their contexts and priorities.
We applaud the incredible efforts by countries to overcome recent setbacks and see incredible energy in ensuring access to new diagnostics, new treatment and preventive regimens, and implementing the latest guidelines. We see how the voice of people affected by TB is rising higher and higher and they must have a central role in the TB response.
We know that we can end TB! So, let us all commit to making change happen for 2024 World TB Day and collectively say ‘Yes! We Can End TB!’ We plan to share the World TB Day campaign toolkit and materials in early February.