On March 24, 1882, Robert Koch announced the discovery of the tuberculosis bacterium. Tuberculosis is the world‘s leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), 10 million people were newly diagnosed with tuberculosis in 2017 and around 1.3 million people died from it. Last year, with the UN declaration “United to End Tuberculosis: An Urgent Global Response to a Global Epidemic”, governments reaffirmed their will to eliminate tuberculosis by 2030. In Germany, 5,429 people fell ill with tuberculosis in 2018 (data as of March 1, 2019), a similar number as in 2017 (5,486 cases).
In order to strengthen tuberculosis control in Germany, the Federal Ministry of Health supports, among other things, the annual “Tuberkulose aktuell” conference, which takes place on March 18, 2019 in Berlin. It serves primarily as an important forum for health authorities, practices, clinics and laboratories and is organized jointly by the RKI, the Central Committee for Combating Tuberculosis and the Borstel Research Center.
Achieving the ambitious goal of elimination also requires increased international cooperation in tuberculosis control. For the second time on March 19, representatives of international organizations, civil society and tuberculosis experts from various countries will exchange views on how the disease can be better combated at an event organized jointly by BMG and the WHO Regional Office for Europe.