Press Release

World TB Day: Towards Healthier Populations

Kabul, Afghanistan  | Tuesday, March 24, 2009

On World TB Day 2009, the United States stands alongside other nations to combat global TB. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been a main donor supporting programs fighting TB for the past 7 years in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, TB is one of the main public health threats and Afghanistan is one of the 22 high-burden TB countries in the world. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2008, approximately 42,000 new TB cases occur annually in Afghanistan, and 8,200 people in the country succumbed to TB in 2006. Almost 70 percent of Afghanistan’s notified TB cases are women.

On World TB Day, USAID, in close collaboration with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GIRoA), recognizes TB control and treatment as a civic duty for all Afghans.  This year, the GIRoA celebrated World TB Day through schools in an effort to better engage school children to be agents of change for themselves, their families and communities.  Collaboration and synergy between legislators, civil society and the private sector is essential to sustain the thrust of the TB control program in the country.  These efforts will enable communities to become better informed on timely care and treatment regimens.

USAID continues to support the National Tuberculosis Program (NTP) in coordination with other international partners under the umbrella of STOP TB Partnership.  USAID is committed to build capacity of NTP and to strengthen TB detection and treatment, through the Directly Observed Therapy, Short Course (DOTS) methodology, in the 13 target provinces through the BPHS/EPHS delivery system.  DOTS is globally recognized as the best way to cure TB and control its spread.

World TB Day is observed around the world to build public awareness about tuberculosis. It commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus.