“COVID-19 isn’t a reason to forget about other diseases”: Zelenskyi reminded of Tuberculosis Day

President Volodymyr Zelenskyi reminded Ukrainians that today was World Tuberculosis Day.

He wrote a message on Twitter.

"COVID-19 isn't a reason to forget about other diseases. Today is World Tuberculosis Day. Ukraine supported the UN's intention to overcome the disease epidemic by 2030. In Ukraine, the incidence of open tuberculosis decreased by 30% last year," the President wrote.

Note

World Tuberculosis Day has been celebrated by the World Health Organization since 1993. It was on March 24, 1882, that the German microbiologist Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis causative agent, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905.

Tuberculosis (or TB, short for tuberculosis bacterium) is a common and sometimes fatal chronic infectious disease, transmitted by airborne droplets.

Most often the disease affects the lungs, and can also develop a pathological process in other organs and tissues. Treating tuberculosis is complex and requires several types of antibiotics for a long time.

According to the World Health Organization, a third of the world's population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT). Every year, 8-9 million people are diagnosed for the first time with this insidious disease, and every day about 4.5 thousand people die from it.

Global efforts to combat tuberculosis have saved approximately 54 million lives since 2000 and reduced mortality by 42%.