The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes March 24, yesterday, as World Tuberculosis Day in order to raise awareness of the bacterial disease.

“TB (Tuberculosis) remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer,” the organization said on their website. “Each day, nearly 4,500 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.”

This year’s theme was “It’s time,” which calls attention to the urgency needed in dealing with TB.

Last year, Department of Health Secretary Francisco Duque III addressed the United Nations regarding TB.

The cabinet official committed to accelerating action towards the elimination of tuberculosis, which the Bacolod City Health Office earlier named as one of the leading causes of death in the city.

According to the WHO Global Tuberculosis Report 2018, the Philippines is among the “30 high TB burden countries,” which saw over 300,000 case reported in 2017.

The report also included a metric that measures cases of TB and HIV.

WHO reported a total of 1,335 such cases were reported in 2017./WDJ