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Pinellas County Health Department
WORLD TB DAY — MARCH 24, 2003
Tuberculosis Is Still A Killer
On March 24, 1882, Robert Koch announced
his discovery of the tubercle bacillus.
When Dr. Koch announced his discovery,
TB was raging through Europe and the
Americas killing one in seven people.
Koch's discovery paved the way for the potential
elimination of this fearsome disease.
But progress towards realizing even a
fraction of that promise has come painfully
slowly. Effective anti-TB drugs did not appear
until the 1950s, and effective treatment
services are still not available in many parts
of the world. TB has claimed the lives of
at least 200 million people since 1882.
About three million people die each year
from TB, and almost a billion people are infected
with the mycobacterium that causes
the disease. Clearly, understanding the
cause and developing an effective treatment
have not brought humankind any closer to
solving the problem of TB today than we
were at the time of Dr. Koch's discovery.
In 1982, on the 100th anniversary of Dr.
Koch’s presentation, the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the International
Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease
sponsored the first World TB Day to
raise public awareness of the disease. Recently,
with renewed global interest in the
TB epidemic, World TB Day has become a
For more information regarding
this newsletter, please
contact:
Quality Management Division
Pinellas County
Health Department
(727) 824-6901
major international health event. In 1998, it
was observed as an official United Nations
Day for the first time.
But, World TB Day is not a celebration.
The leading killer of humans in history is
still at work in spite of available effective
medicines and tools. The greatest tragedy
is that not a single person should die from
TB because TB is a curable disease. (All contents
copyright 1998 NJMS National Tuberculosis Center. All rights reserved.)
TB Treatment — What is DOT?
Treatment for TB involves taking medication
regularly during the entire treatment
period. A health strategy called DOT is the
technique credited for major decreases in
cases of TB. DOT stands for Directly Observed
Therapy and involves a health care
worker actually observing
the patient taking their
medication throughout
the entire treatment period.
DOT proves that
when medication is taken
precisely as prescribed, TB, the killer, can
be STOPPED!
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TB Facts
Someone dies of TB every 15 seconds.
Almost everyone could have and
should have been cured.
Eight million people develop active TB
every year.
One can infect between 10 and 15 people
in one year just by breathing.
The best way to prevent TB is to treat
and cure people who have it.