An estimated 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis in 2006 and a report in the New England Journal of Medicine says. Africa may be facing the worst tuberculosis epidemic since the invention of antibiotics.
In his message UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday, "we must tackle the roots of the problem: poor services, poor supplies, poor prescribing and poor use of drugs."
"This is a fight that can be won only with the collective commitment of millions of individuals -- donors and researchers, doctors and health care workers, patients and family members," he stressed.
The number of TB cases in Africa has more than doubled between 1990 and 2005, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. There were 9.2 million new cases of TB in 2006, an increase of about $100 from the year before.
The UN chief also announced that the United Nations will convene a Global Leaders' HIV/TB Forum this June in an effort to boost the collective capacity to drive down HIV-associated TB deaths. India had the most cases, followed by China, Indonesia, South Africa, and Nigeria, the report added.
World Tuberculosis Day commemorates the day Dr. Robert Koch announced he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis (the TB bacillus) in 1882. It is marked to build public awareness that tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world.
The theme of this year's day is "I am Stopping TB".
