ATS Recognizes World TB Day 2022
On March 24, the ATS joined medical and public health organizations around the globe in recognizing World TB Day 2022. As part of our efforts to bring attention to the global burden of TB, the ATS, in partnership with the Forum of International Societies (FIRS), called on the TB community to challenge ourselves to think differently, champion science and embrace evidence-based innovation to end TB.
For the first time in over a decade, deaths from TB are increasing, with 1.5 million deaths in 2020. This is a global public health emergency and ATS joins our colleagues at FIRS to recommend:
- Prioritizing active identification and treatment of everyone with TB to prevent transmission of the infectious disease.
- Using the latest technological advances at our disposal – digital communications, imaging, and diagnostic tools.
- Undertaking clinical, public health and operational research to create knowledge for action.
- Involving communities and motivating them to embrace the concept of eliminating TB.
- Challenging TB inequity globally – we can no longer accept that people in low- and middle-income countries are, every day, infected, becoming sick and dying with TB, while people in high-income countries are largely unaware that TB still exists.
The ATS notes that it will be challenging to sustain an environment where evidence-based innovation to address TB can flourish given the current hardships faced globally, including the millions of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.
