Every year, the world observes World Tuberculosis Day on March 24th. This day reminds us to fight against tuberculosis (TB), a disease that continues to affect millions worldwide. Also, World TB Day increases the urgency of ending tuberculosis. TB inflicts severe health, social, and economic consequences.
The theme for World Tuberculosis Day 2025 is “Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver”. This theme calls for hope, urgency, and actions to eliminate TB. World Tuberculosis Day is an opportunity to focus on TB infected people. This day also call for quicker action to end TB suffering and deaths.
In this blog, we will discuss about tuberculosis and theme of World Tuberculosis Day 2025. Moreover, we explain TB serious concerns in Pakistan and the challenges facing by Pakistan in fighting against TB.
Furthermore, we discuss the steps taken by the government and private organisations in Pakistan to mitigate the challenges of TB. Lastly, we talk about how we can contribute to fighting against this drastic disease.
What is Tuberculosis?
Tuberculosis, known as TB, is a bacterial infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It mainly disturbs the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. TB spreads through the air medium when TB infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. Some common symptoms include a cough, chest pain, fatigue, weight loss, fever, and night sweats. TB can be fatal, if not treated properly. It can be diagnosed with CT scans and X-rays.
Each day, over 3400 people worldwide lose their lives to TB. Also, close to 30,000 people fall ill with this avoidable and treatable disease. TB is the important cause of death of people with HIV disease. It is a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance.
World Tuberculosis Day 2025 Theme:
Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver”.
The theme of World Tuberculosis Day 2025 emphasises the importance of commitment, financial investment, and delivery of interventions. These factors are important for TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care. This theme strengthens an influential collective message of hope, urgency, and accountability.
Commit reminds commitment to end TB. Though, commitments alone are not enough. They need to be supported by strong actions, funding, national strategies, and policies.
Invest reminds points to the serious step of funding the TB response. This can be through more investments and funding via various channels.
Deliver explains the commitments and investments into concrete results that benefit infected people. For effective delivery, communities and civil societies involvement along with multisectoral collaboration is important. It also requires interventions, diagnosis, preventive treatment, and care for drug-resistant
This day is especially important for Pakistan because TB remains a noteworthy health issue in our country.
Tuberculosis in Pakistan: A Serious Concern
Tuberculosis is a public health issue in Pakistan. Unfortunately, Pakistan is on fifth position in worldwide ranking having highest burden of TB. Every year, almost 608,000 new TB cases emerge.
WHO recent evaluation shows the incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates of TB in Pakistan are 230, 310, and 39 per 100,000 people. This shows every year, around 410,000 new TB cases are reported, and about 69,000 people lost their lives due to this disease. This shows that TB affects many families in country, producing health and financial problems.
Moreover, lack of awareness, social stigma, or lack of funds are some factors responsible in failing patients in Pakistan to complete their treatment. This increases risks of drug-resistant, which is more expensive and harder to treat. The conditions are worse in rural areas having insufficient healthcare facilities.
On World Tuberculosis Day 2025, we need a promise to fight against TB. We can do this by increasing awareness, offer easy treatment, and reinforce healthcare infrastructure, particularly in backward areas.
Challenges in Fighting against Tuberculosis
There are numerous factors which make it difficult to control TB in Pakistan. Some are given below:
Lack of Awareness
Most of the people do not have basic information about TB. They even don’t know how it spreads, or how it can be cured. This will result in delayed treatments.
Social Stigma
People of all genders having TB feel embarrassed or afraid of being judged. This can stop them from getting the treatment.
Incomplete Treatment
Moreover, complete TB treatment takes several months. Some patients stop medications early when they started feeling better. This can cause the disease to come back. At this stage, it becomes harder to treat.
Poverty and Inadequate Living Conditions
Another challenge which makes it difficult to control TB, is lack of financial resources. People are forced to live in overcrowded places due to insufficient funds. They also have poor nutrition which can further increase the risk of getting TB.
Drug-Resistant TB
TB become resistant to standard medicines if not treated properly. Due to drug-resistance, the disease becomes expensive and difficult to cure.
How Pakistan Battles against TB
To reduce and end TB from Pakistan, Pakistani government and various organizations are working together. Despite the high rates of TB in Pakistan, Pakistan has taken steps in reducing its numbers. Organizations like National TB Control Program (NTP), launched in 2001 are enthusiastically working to make Pakistan, TB-free.
NTP is working alongside the National Institute of Health to fight TB in the country. The National TB Control Programme (NTP) goal is to cut the number of TB cases in half by 2025 compared to 2012. The organisation has improved its cases detection from 11,050 in 2000 to 248,115 in 2008.
Community Efforts and Innovations
Local organisations along with government initiatives are using innovative methods to battle against TB:
The Dopasi Foundation has introduced mobile screening units mobile. These units are equipped with X-ray machines and artificial intelligence to detect TB among miners and brick kiln workers. This method helps find cases early, particularly in hard-to-reach areas.
The transgender community in Pakistan faces important health challenges, TB is one of them. Organisations are now providing support for vulnerable groups by targeted screening and treatment programs.
What role we play to fight TB?
On this Tuberculosis Day 2025, everyone should play their effective role in eliminating TB. Here are some ways you can contribute to this cause:
- We can educate ourselves and others. This can be by learning about TB and share information with your family and friends.
- We need to support TB patients. We can do this by encouraging people experiencing treatment. We can also help to reduce the stigma associated with the disease.
- We need to speak for better health services. This can be done by promoting better TB services in our community.
- We need to adopt healthy practices especially if we have persistent coughs or other symptoms. These healthy practices include good hygiene, confirm proper ventilation in living spaces, and search for medical attention.
Conclusion
World Tuberculosis Day 2025 reminds us that eradication is possible with joint effort. TB remains a major health issue in Pakistan. So, it is important for government, organisations, educational institutions, and individuals to commit, invest, and deliver on potentials to fight this disease. We can make a healthier, TB-free future for our country by working together.
