World Tuberculosis Day, observed on March 24 each year, is designed to build public awareness about the global epidemic of tuberculosis (TB) and efforts to eliminate the disease.
In 2012, 8.6 million people fell ill with TB, and 1.3 million died from the disease, mostly in the Third World.
The theme of the World TB Day celebration of the year 2016 was “Find TB. Treat TB. Working together to eliminate TB”.
The theme of the World TB Day celebration of the year 2017 is “Unite to End TB”.
World TB Day is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO), along with World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, World Immunization Week, World Malaria Day, World No Tobacco Day, World Hepatitis Day and World AIDS Day.