March 24 is World Tuberculosis (TB) Day. This is a day designed to build public awareness around tuberculosis.
Despite the fact that it is curable, TB is an epidemic that causes the deaths of millions of people each year, mostly in Africa. The linkages between TB and HIV and AIDS have made the situation even worse. Globally, 9.2 million new cases and 1.7 million deaths from TB occurred in 2006, of which 0.7 million cases and 0.2 million deaths were in HIV-positive people. (http://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/en/index.html)

In 1882 Dr Robert Koch, a German physician and scientist announced that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of the announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and America causing the death of one out of every seven people. Dr Koch's discovery opened the way towards diagnosing and curing tuberculosis.

In 1982, on the one-hundredth anniversary of Dr Koch's presentation, the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) proposed that 24 March be proclaimed an official World TB Day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tuberculosis_Day

Issues journalists should address

• The theme for this year’s TB Day is “I am Stopping TB”. The theme places emphasis on the individual to take action and personal responsibility of stopping TB. The media can take this opportunity to encourage everyone to be pro-active, be a leader and participate in stopping TB.
  

• This year's World TB Day is about celebrating the lives and stories of people affected by TB: women, men and children who have taken TB treatment; nurses; doctors; researchers; community workers--anyone who have contributed towards the global fight against TB. It is also about celebrating the actions of people all over the world joining forces to stop TB. The media can utilise this opportunity to highlight what various organisations and individuals have done and are doing in the fight against TB.

• Personal experiences of people who have been affected by TB can be captured and shared so that people learn from each other’s experiences. Researchers can also be interviewed so that the public is aware of any new findings in line with drugs, vaccines and how to manage TB.
  
• TB kills up to half of all AIDS patients worldwide. People who are HIV-positive and infected with TB are up to 50 times more likely to develop active TB in their lifetime than people who are HIV-negative (UNAIDS,2007).
  

• Most people still do not know about the interactions between HIV and AIDS and TB. It is the responsibility of the journalists to impart information and educate people on the linkages. After HIV, TB is the greatest infectious killer of young people and adults in the world today. Raising awareness of these issues helps to stop the spread of the twin epidemic.
  
• The media also have a duty to inform people that TB is curable and educate them on the various prevention measures that can be taken as well as educate them on the importance of drug adherence. TB can become resistant if a patient is not treated long enough, doesn't take prescribed medications properly, or doesn't receive the right drugs.
  
• Given that it takes six months, TB patients are more likely to drop out of treatment before it is completed than with other medication regimens. When a patient does not finish the full course of treatment, he or she can develop and spread drug resistant strains of TB that are much harder to treat and up to 100 times more expensive to cure. (WFP, 2004.)
  
• In recent years, there has been a major challenge of Multi Drug Resistant TB (MDR - TB) which can cause death within a few weeks in persons with HIV and AIDS. The media can play a crucial role and save many lives by raising awareness on the importance of taking proper medications consistently as prescribed by health care providers and the dangers of not following the stipulated instructions.
  

• If TB is left unchecked in the next 20 years, almost one billion people will become newly infected, 200 million will develop the disease, and 35 million will die from it.  (http://www.who.int/tb/challenges/hiv/facts/en/index.html).
  Most journalists do not pay much attention to the coverage of TB issues. By making an extra effort to focus attention on this critical issue, journalists would assist the world in fighting TB and prevent millions of people from dying.

Sources

1. http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2008/

2. http://www.who.int/topics/tuberculosis/en/

3. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/index.html

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tuberculosis_Day

5. http://www.who.int/tb/challenges/hiv/facts/en/index.html

6. World Food Programme, July, 2004, HIV and AIDS and Tuberculosis : Addressing co-infection