World Tuberculosis Day Observance, March 24

March 24, 2008 is World Tuberculosis Day and has been set aside by public health agencies around the world to raise awareness about this disease. World TB Day 2008 is a major opportunity to focus attention on the massive challenge of defeating the TB epidemic at the global, regional, national, and community level. This year's theme "I Am Stopping TB" is a two-year campaign that belongs to the people everywhere who are doing their part to Stop TB.

Tuberculosis is a contagious disease that is spread through the air - much like the common cold. However, only people who are sick with active TB, when the germ is growing and multiplying in the lungs or throat, are infectious. When infectious people cough, sneeze, talk or spit, they propel TB germs (bacilli) into the air. A person may become infected when they inhale these germs but will not necessarily become sick with the disease. A person's immune system fights off the TB germ, which is protected by a thick waxy coat. Because of the germ's protection, it can lie dormant in a person's system for years. When the immune system becomes weakened, the chances of the germ infecting the body become greater.

Until fifty years ago, there were no medicines to cure TB. Now there are several anti-TB drugs available, but unfortunately, strains of TB that are resistant to many of the available drugs have emerged. These resistant strains of TB are a result of patients not taking their medicines properly, incorrect treatment-regimens being prescribed, or an unreliable drug supply.

To address these problems, WHO and its international partners have formed the DOTSPlus Working Group. This group develops global policy on the management of multidrug resistant TB (MDR-TB) and facilitates access to second line, anti-TB drugs.

DOT (directly observed therapy) is utilized by public health in Georgia and all patients in Georgia are expected to have directly observed therapy. When a case of TB is reported, public health nurses or epidemiologists interview the patient to find out who may have been exposed. They contact those people and urge them to be tested. All health departments offer TB testing and preventive treatment, and provide management and treatment for active cases. Public health departments arrange for a responsible person to make sure the person with active TB disease takes all the medication required. This may be done at home, at work, in a clinic or in a doctor's office.

Symptoms of tuberculosis include: a productive cough which usually lasts more than 3 weeks, unexplained fever, night sweats, unintentional weight loss, loss of appetite, extreme tiredness, and coughing up blood or blood-streaked sputum.

The Stop TB Partnership is a collaborative effort hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) of international partners. Each WHO region provides surveillance for TB and reports the incidence of all forms of TB, the incidence of infectious cases, and mortality.