World Tuberculosis (TB) Day – March 24th Launching of the Tuberculosis U.S.-Mexico Border Situation Report

El Paso, TX, March 24, 2011 (PAHO/WHO) – The purpose of World TB Day is to generate a higher level of awareness of the global TB epidemic and the efforts to end the disease. Currently, one third of the world population is infected with tuberculosis. The global Stop TB Partnership, a network of organizations and countries fighting to stop tuberculosis, is organizing World TB Day to publicize the extent of the disease and ways to prevent and cure it.

This event, held each year on March 24, marks the day that Dr. Robert Koch in 1882 found the cause of tuberculosis, namely, the tubercle bacillus. This was the first step toward diagnosis and cure of the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) is working to reduce, by 2015, the prevalence and death rate in half. 



To commemorate that date, the Consulate General of Mexico in El Paso, the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission, the El Paso Department of Public Health, the Health District II Health Services of the State of Chihuahua, the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization United States-Mexico Border Office, among others, joined forces to present the current status of tuberculosis in the United States-Mexico border and the strategies being undertaken to fight towards its elimination. 

Please see attached agenda

 2011 Technical aspects THE SITUATION OF TUBERCULOSIS

To access the full text report
http://www.infofrontera.org/lildbi/docsonline/fep002991.pdf
 
 Border TB Report Slides_Mar-2011

RELATED LINKS:

- WHO Tuberculosis Programme
- Tuberculosis Health Topics
- Global Plan to Stop TB 2010-2015
- TB and the Millenium Development Goals
- Stop TB Partnership