FOR the first time in history, Zimbabwe will this year host a Light Up for TB campaign, which is a global campaign to draw attention to the 1.5 million deaths caused by TB each year and to show solidarity to the millions of people affected.
Every year countries across the world come together on this day by lighting up buildings and significant monuments in RED.
Speaking on the Light Up Campaign, Jointed Hands Welfare Organisation Executive Director, Dr Donald Tobaiwa urged cities and towns to take advantage of the Lights Up campaign to raise awareness on TB. The Light Up for TB Campaign will be held in March at a date to be announced soon.
What are some of the opportunities for Cities in terms of TB surveillance in Zimbabwe? One of them is awareness raising. There is need to scale up messaging around TB. We need to make TB a more interesting issue to address in the cities. The Lights Up campaign is one such intervention that will make TB an interesting issue to address,” said Dr Tobaiwa.
The campaign is part of the 2022 World TB Day commemorations where in Zimbabwe, the Stop TB Partnership, the Jointed Hands Welfare Organisation (JWHO) and other organisations are partnering the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MoHCC) to host the first ever Light-Up campaign for TB with the goal of raising awareness and letting more people know about tuberculosis and the importance of stopping the spread of the disease and possibly stop TB.
The “Light up the world for TB” was launched by the Stop TB Partnership in 2017. The campaign has attracted the participation of cities across the world such as Barcelona, Budapest, Geneva, Karachi, Niagara Falls, Rio, amongst many others. The Light-Up the world for TB campaign is a symbolic action to light up buildings and or landmarks in red on the 24th of March to show commitment towards ending TB. The campaign aims to raise awareness on TB and the profile of TB, remember all the people who succumbed to TB, and Celebrate all the people who survived TB.
On March 24 every year, the world commemorates World Tuberculosis (TB) Day (WTBD) as a way of raising awareness and educating the public about the impact of TB around the world. This annual event commemorates the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes tuberculosis (TB).
In 1921, the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) tuberculosis vaccine was first administered to a human. However, even in the presence of a TB vaccine, it remains the leading infectious disease killer in the world, claiming 1.5 million lives each year. In Zimbabwe, the TB/HIV confection makes it more deadly and also one of the leading killer ailments around.
In Zimbabwe, late detection of TB results on several deaths and hospitalisation every year, hence the need to boost awareness of tuberculosis so to diagnose it sooner, and treat it better, and earlier.
