Kivitoli Achumi addressing the gathering during the World Tuberculosis Day at NEISSR on March 24.
Dimapur, March 27 (MExN): The North East Institute of Social Sciences and Research (NEISSR) observed World Tuberculosis Day on March 24 at Dimapur under the theme, ‘Invest to End Tuberculosis, Save Lives.’
According to a press release on Sunday, the programne was observed during the morning Sarvodaya session and Kivitoli Achumi, a student of Community Development specialisation spoke on the occasion. She stated that the theme conveys the urgent need to invest resources and also serves as a message to the global leaders to support the fight against this deadly disease.
Addressing the crowd, she spoke on the history, the different types of tuberculosis and the dire need to spread awareness in the society, the release stated.
World Tuberculosis Day is held on March 24 every year to raise public awareness about the devastating health and social-economic consequences of TB. According to WHO, TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers. Each day, nearly 4,000 lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease, it said.
She stated that for the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic and over 1.5 million people died from TB. In this context, she opined that observing World Tuberculosis Day is of great significance as it brings back the attention to the bacterial infection which amid the COVID-19 pandemic was ignored by the health authorities all over the world.
Tuberculosis is the 13th leading cause of death and the second leading infectious killer after COVID-19, she said while pointing out that the United Nations Sustainable Goals (SDGs) target to end the TB epidemic by 2030. As such, she encouraged everyone to be a part of this initiative by spreading awareness to mark the progress towards global targets for reductions in TB cases and deaths.
