Observation of 2020 World Tuberculosis (TB) Day will slow down over the outbreak of coronavirus, deadly disease which started in Wuhan in China.
Currently, public gathering has been banned in many countries to curb the spread of COVID-19 which has killed thousands of people worldwide and affected about one million people.
Tuberculosis (also known as “TB”) is a disease caused by a type of bacteria called Mycobacterium tuberculosis, it the world’s top infectious disease killer claiming 4,500 lives each day.
The world TB day is celebrated each year across the globe on March 24 to raise public awareness about the devastating health, social and economic consequences of TB and encourage all nations to step up efforts in ending the disease.
World TB Day commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that causes TB. This year’s World TB Day theme “It’s TIME!” highlights CDC’s efforts to eliminate TB in the United States and around the world.
Ghana was presently detecting about 15,000 TB cases out of the estimated number of 44,000 TB cases expected to be detected annually, an indication at 29,000 TB cases were undiagnosed.
The latest report of the Lancet Commission on TB recognized that Ghana’s failure to implement adequate TB prevention strategies was one of the key reasons the nation had not made enough progress against the disease.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
