Dominique Praplan, head of the IFRC health and care department
Tuberculosis (TB) remains a high cause of mortality throughout the world. In 2006, some 1.7 million people lost their lives due to TB. Among them, 200,000 were also living with HIV. They are suffering what is commonly called “co-infection". Eastern Europe, Central Asia and - more recently - southern Africa are often considered as the most affected areas but the fact is that TB is also on the rise in Latin America and Asia – especially India and China - making it a prevalent global challenge.
TB is a disease that is curable if quickly identified and when the correct treatment is provided. When no action is taken, because it is a highly contagious disease, everyone infected with TB will contaminate another ten to fifteen other people around them.
These facts clearly show the necessity for more effective prevention. Engaging with communities at risk is certainly one of the most efficient tools to fight the disease that is too often a rare approach.
Conventional global prevention campaigns do exist. Some of them are excellent such as the one involving the Portuguese football player Luis Figo. They do a lot to remind everyone that TB is still around today.
However, these mainstream campaigns also need to be complemented by action on the ground working together with the most vulnerable, including stigmatized groups because of their origins or because of their socio-economic status. As for HIV, we won’t reduce the number of TB cases as long as entire groups within our society are in the dark about the dangers they face.
It is precisely these marginalized groups that Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers work with when conducting awareness-raising campaigns. Once they identify community members who are infected with TB, volunteers help them get proper treatment. Even more crucial, they also visit them on a regular basis to make sure that they follow their treatments, they bring them nutritious food - when necessary - as well as psychosocial support. This is all the more important since TB patients can also be stigmatized and discriminated against within their own community.
Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers also give priority to "peer educators". This means that they have gone through a similar situation so it is easier for them to open the dialogue with the very same marginalized group they used to belong to.
The outcome of this approach is spectacular. TB patients who benefit from follow up visits by volunteers have a recovery rate that is over 75 per cent. According to a recent independent survey conducted on the Red Cross TB programme implemented in Russia, the risk for TB patients supported by Red Cross volunteers not to recover is slashed by five compared to people who do not get any support from volunteers.
Based on these positive achievements, as the world marks World TB Day on March 24, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) commits to increasing activites geared towards raising awareness, promoting better behaviour and reducing stigma. This is shared by many of the 600 organizations part of the “Stop TB Partnership" that will meet in Rio-de-Janeiro (Brasil) from March 21-26 to re-energize and better coordinate the fight against this persistant and destructive global disease.
People cannot die of TB just because they are unaware of the dangers.