March 24 is World TB Day, but maybe we think tuberculosis is a disease of the past. I was surprised to learn that TB sickens 10.4 million people and kills 1.7 million people worldwide each year. Why should this matter to us? Because TB is an airborne disease and we all breathe air. Because untreated TB can turn into multi-drug-resistant TB, which is so costly to treat that it can devastate a state public health budget.
There is going to be a high-level UN meeting to make specific, public commitments to end TB. The U.S. needs to show leadership and support for India, which has the biggest TB epidemic. The Indian prime minister has increased TB funding and urged action.
U.S. AID TB funding will save lives, implement patient and community-centered approaches, strengthen health systems and laboratories in affected countries, support critical research and contribute to TB elimination in our own country.
There is no room for thinking how it affects the U.S. U.S. can be read as “us” and “us” means the world and all of “us” who live there.
Rochelle Goldberg
Bothell
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