The past decade has shown what is possible when we work together. We want to make this year a memorable one for TB and we want patients and communities to speak up and be at the core of our efforts this year.
4 March 2015 -- Geneva, Switzerland -- In just three weeks, we join the rest of the world in celebrating World TB Day under the theme Reach the 3 Million: Reach, Treat, Cure Everyone. The theme draws attention to the crucial need to continue our commitment to finding, diagnosing, treating and curing all people of TB and accelerating progress towards the bold goal of Ending TB by 2035.
The past decade has shown what is possible when we work together.
We are constantly amazed at how much work is happening at the country level and starting this year, more than any year before, we want patients, their families and communities to speak up and be at the core of our efforts. We want everyone to widely share what they are doing for World TB Day and beyond World TB Day -- in order to increase the visibility and engagement in the fight against TB.
World TB Day is not a day for gloom and fear. It is a day of determination and engagement. I am reaching out to you, to come together and show our support in the fight against TB -- share, speak up, challenge, change!
We are aware of the many events planned in every single country and by all our partners and we want everyone to know that only a united and strong voice will be heard in the crowded international space -- so let us be united. We encourage you to use the messages attached to my email in the coming weeks through all your social media channels. A sample of this is given below:
Global messages:
- Out of the 9 million new #TB cases in 2013, 3.3 million are consistently missed by health systems. It’s just not right! #worldtbday
- About 1.5 million people die from #TB each year -- this equates to 4000 people/day. We have to end this. #worldtbday
- Nearly 2 billion people are estimated to have latent TB infection - that is one person in three worldwide. #worldtbday
- Bedaquiline and Delamanid are two new drugs that are saving lives of MDR-TB patients. #worldtbday
- Fact! @GlobalFund is TB's biggest international funder providing 80% of external funding for TB globally. We need a fully funded @GlobalFund
Tailored for your own countries:
- (Insert politicians twitter handle), will you add your voice to fight #TB on #worldtbday? Sign the Barcelona Declaration http://bit.ly/1Aqxzid
- (Head of State twitter handle, see attached list), did you know March 24th is World TB Day and that TB killed xx people in our country in 2014? #worldtbday
Specific to TB REACH and GDF:
- 1.4 million patients have been treated with support from#TBREACH across 48 countries. #worldtbday
- In 2014, the TBREACH/GDF platforms procured 125 GeneXpert systems & supported partners in using >700,000 MTB/RIF cartridges. #worldtbday
- #GDF has massively contributed to active case-finding. It has delivered diagnostics worth of USD 82 million. #worldtbday
- 24.5 million adults & 1.3 million children have been treated through 26 million 1st line drugs delivered by #GDF #worldtbday
- #GDF has reduced prices of major 2nd Line Drugs by more than 30%, making crucial medicines more affordable to patients in need. #worldtbday
What we will do to help:
1. The attached PDF document is the suggested guide containing top line messages linked to World TB Day this year -- please feel free to share this widely and disseminate through all your social media channels.
2. The Stop TB Partnership is stepping up engagement through social media in what is an unprecedented initiative to multiply our reach. Please send us your suggested tweets and events so that we can promote it through all our channels so that partners can then share as widely as possible to ensure maximum reach.
3. The Stop TB Partnership website now has the campaign documents, posters and t-shirt designs available for download in the 6 languages. Please take a moment to tell us about the events you are having through this page so that we can have a global map ahead of World TB Day to highlight what is happening.
4. A special World TB Day newsletter will come out on the 24th of March.
Thank you for your incredible support and let's make this day a memorable one!
Yours sincerely,
Dr Lucica Ditiu
Executive Secretary,
Stop TB Partnership