World Tuberculosis Day-24 March

On 24 March 2016 World Tuberculosis Day (WTD) 2016 was globally observed with the theme Unite to End TB.
•    The theme was selected against the backdrop of the adoption of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015.
•    It is annually celebrated on 24 March to commemorate the day on which Dr. Robert Koch discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus in 1882.
•    It is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO).
•    The other seven includes World Health Day (7 April), World Blood Donor Day (14 June), World Immunization Week (24-30 April), World Malaria Day (25 April), World No Tobacco Day (31 May), World Hepatitis Day (28 July) and World AIDS Day (1 December).
•    On May 2014, at the World Health Assembly, governments agreed on an ambitious 20-year (2016-2035) strategy to end the global TB epidemic.
•    Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs.
•    It is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with the active respiratory disease.
•    It is the second biggest killer next only to HIV/AIDS worldwide.