Background
World TB Day is an annual event observed on March 24th to raise public awareness about the devastating health, the social, and economic impact of tuberculosis (TB) and to support global efforts to eliminate the disease.
This year, the focus is on building hope and momentum towards ending TB by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.
The theme for World TB Day 2023 is ‘YES! We Can End TB’. It highlights the collective power to end TB by 2030 and the need for increased engagement of those affected by TB, communities, and civil society to lead the movement towards ending this disease.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on TB control efforts, and the 2023 campaign aims to build on the fantastic work done in 2022 by many TB high-burden countries to recover from the pandemic’s impact while ensuring access to new diagnostics, treatment regimens, digital technology, and artificial intelligence for the TB response.
The campaign emphasizes the need for financial resources to scale up implementation and speed up research and development of new tools, including a new TB vaccine.
It also highlights the importance of access to new rapid molecular diagnosis and to new shorter and more efficient treatment regimens, TB prevention, TB in children, and strengthening and funding Communities, Rights, and Gender (CRG) work.
The goal of the campaign is to contribute to boosting global TB awareness and ensuring the endorsement of a strong political declaration and maximum participation by the Heads of State and Heads of Government at the upcoming UN High-Level Meeting on TB in September 2023.
The year 2023 is critical for all stakeholders engaged in TB work and the campaign should get full support, attention, and energy for a collective ‘YES! We Can End TB’.
Activities
In collaboration with the DOTs clinic team of the Department of Community Medicine, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) and her partners, the branch undertook several media engagements and a sensitization walk around the hospital and university community (University of Port Harcourt and UPTH). This can be seen in the gallery of pictures below: