Today is World TB Day, observed every March 24 since 1982. The date commemorates the day in 1882 when Robert Koch announced his discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. One hundred and forty-four years later, the disease remains the world's deadliest infectious killer. [1]

The numbers are staggering and stubbornly persistent. In 2024, an estimated 10.7 million people fell ill with tuberculosis worldwide. More than 1.2 million died — a toll that exceeds HIV and malaria combined. The disease is preventable, treatable, and curable with a standard six-month antibiotic regimen that costs as little as $20 in low-income countries. Yet it persists because the populations it hits hardest — the poor, the malnourished, the immunocompromised, the imprisoned — lack access to even basic diagnostics. [2]

The WHO's 2026 campaign carries the theme "Yes! We can End TB!" — punctuation that conveys more aspiration than confidence. The Global Fund notes that 83 million lives have been saved since 2000 through coordinated treatment programs. But funding has plateaued. The UN's 2023 high-level meeting on TB set a target of $22 billion in annual funding by 2027. Current spending is roughly half that. [1]

Drug-resistant strains add urgency. Extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, requires treatment regimens lasting up to two years with drugs that are expensive, toxic, and frequently unavailable in the countries where they are needed most. [2]

Tuberculosis is the world's oldest pandemic and its most neglected. Today is the day the world pretends to remember.

-- PRIYA SHARMA, Delhi