World TB Day

TB is often relegated as a sickness of impoverished segments of the global population. But TB’s true impact is universal – affecting both rich and poor. Learn how activists and medical experts from TB hotspots are facing and overcoming the challenges of combatting TB.

Even in England and the United States, two of the richest countries in the world, there's a pressing need for latent TB testing. See how two committed scientists separated by one vast ocean rely on the same tool to detect latent TB before it spreads to others, or develops into the active and highly contagious form of the disease.

Every tenth tuberculosis infection worldwide occurs in China, making it the country with the third most cases globally. Dr. Gao Lei and his team are fighting to end TB at the source – examining 50,000 people each year in order to conquer the disease on the “front lines” of rural China.

Dr. Alistair Story is putting TB back on the public healthcare radar by bringing testing to susceptible communities – knowing that a disruption in TB services caused by COVID-19 could have dire consequences.

He’s shown that the COVID-19 outbreak can provide an opportunity to identify TB cases that would have otherwise gone undiagnosed.

Dr. Rosa Herrera contracted tuberculosis after sheltering from an earthquake in a crowded ER. She recovered from the disease, but struggled with the stigma that it carried. Now, Herrera is doing all she can to reach out and treat the hardest hit communities.

In the Gulf region, labor migration is the main source of new TB cases. Currently, those who travel to the region for work are tested for active TB with routine X-ray examinations. However, this practice does not identify asymptomatic individuals infected with latent TB, who may develop the disease and risk infecting others. Learn how Dr. Eskild Petersen, a world-renowned TB expert, is spearheading the fight to end TB in the gulf.