World TB Day is held annually on 24 March. On this day the health community directs efforts into raising awareness about tuberculosis (TB) and calling for solutions to stop the disease. ELF is engaged in TB work by collaborating with TB organisations, supporting patients, and voicing their needs and priorities for research and policy agenda.
World Tuberculosis Day is marked each year on 24 March. The day raises awareness about tuberculosis (TB) and calls for more efforts to prevent TB. For 2022, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has set the theme: ‘Invest to End TB. Save Lives.’ It emphasises the urgency to dedicate resources to strengthen the fight against TB. In the last 2 years, the focus shifted from TB to the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure progress in the field of TB continues, WHO reminds everyone about investments needed to achieve the commitments to end TB made previously by global leaders.
In line with WHO Call for Action for this World TB Day, ELF encourages you to:
We invite you to visit ELF Information Hub with dedicated resources on TB.
TB is a lung disease area that ELF covers among its activities. We are committed to supporting organisations in the field, the affected population, their families, care-givers and the wider network of public health stakeholders. We understand that a long-term solution requires strategic collaboration between healthcare, research and policy. Only this combined effort can address the challenges and threats that TB currently presents to global health.
The issue of drug-resistance is an important topic to address. TB falls into a wider field of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) that is currently high on the public health agenda. AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of spread of TB, severe illness and death.
AMR has a prominent place at the EU level in policy priorities of the European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA), the EU Pharma Strategy and the EU AMR One-Health Network. There are funding opportunities for AMR within EU4HEALTH, Horizon Europe and the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) programmes. New research projects are focused on finding solutions, for example medications, vaccines and regimes for the treatment and prevention of bacterial infections that are resistant to medications, including TB.
UNITE4TB is an example of a research project addressing AMR, particularly TB. The project aims to accelerate and improve the clinical evaluation of combinations of current and new drugs. The goal is to develop new TB treatments for TB infection that is resistant to antibiotics.
ELF supports the project by facilitating communication and input of the Community Advisory Group.
Ahead of World TB Day, the project hosted a panel discussion on the Global Burden of TB. The event provided an overview of the global challenges of TB, strategies to address them and how the project goals fit in.
European Lung Health Group webinar
To mark the upcoming World Tuberculosis Day, European Lung Health Group is hosting an event on the topic of TB care for Refugees and Migrants in Europe on 29 March 2022 (13:00 – 14:00). The webinar will discuss how migration affects the health of TB patients and their access to healthcare and what should be done to support them, especially taking into account the current humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe. Register to attend!
The World Health Organization (WHO) is organising a special virtual talk show to commemorate World TB Day on 24 March. This will put the spotlight on TB with the theme – ‘Invest to End TB. Save Lives’ to convey the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments to end TB made by global leaders.
