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A WORLD FREE OF TB
Tuberculosis is an airborne infectious disease that is preventable and curable. People ill with TB bacteria in their lungs can infect others when they cough. An estimated 1.5 million people died from TB in 2006. In addition, another 200,000 people with HIV died from HIV-associated TB. If TB disease is detected early and fully treated, people with the disease quickly become non-infectious and eventually cured. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), HIV-associated TB, and weak health systems are major challenges.
WHO is working to dramatically reduce the burden of TB, and halve TB deaths and prevalence by 2015, through its Stop TB Strategy and supporting the Global Plan to Stop TB.
Global TB Ambassador and soccer legend, Luis Figo is now the captain of a different kind of team -- the Stop Tuberculosis Team -- whose players come alive on the pages of a comic book, co-produced by WHO. In 'Luìs Figo and the World Tuberculosis Cup', Figo's team take on a team of TB germs. The book, which is available in several languages, aims to inform young readers about the basics of TB control.
Read the comic in various languages
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Luis Figo
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