On March 24, 1882, Dr. Robert Koch announced the discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis (TB), and for this reason, the World Health Organization encourages the celebration of World Tuberculosis Day every March 24. The main goal is to raise awareness about the devastating social, economic, and health consequences of this ancient disease and to accelerate efforts to improve control over this infection, which continues to cause more than a million deaths worldwide each year.
For years, Barcelona has celebrated World Tuberculosis Day with an event organized by the Foundation of the Tuberculosis Research Unit (fuiTB). It is an open event that we just held this past Friday, attended by over 100 in-person participants and more than 300 online via webinar from various countries.
There was a panel on complicated cases from a social perspective, highlighting an epidemic outbreak with more than 25 cases. Another panel was dedicated to presenting the top four TB theses, awarded in the 2024 fuiTB announcement, and presented by young researchers from Barcelona, Madrid, Zaragoza, and Paraguay. The third panel focused on a new skin test for diagnosing latent tuberculosis infection, emphasizing its higher specificity compared to the historical tuberculin test. Lastly, a presentation was given on gamification to raise awareness of TB, based on a game that received great feedback.
The good news is that these types of events are held in many cities across all continents. The bad news is that political, social, and economic circumstances do not favour achieving the objectives of the WHO’s End TB Strategy, as we recently highlighted in a scientific article focused on Spain and Western Europe. According to this research, with this epidemiological evolution, the main objective of the End TB Strategy for 2025 milestone (50% incidence decline since 2015) will not be achieved in Spain. The 80% decline will probably not be reached by 2030 unless surveillance and control are improved, and TB Programmes are provided with sufficient resources. The same situation could be happening in other western European countries.
A doctor specialized in family and community medicine and in preventive medicine and public health. He was head of the Epidemiology Service at the Barcelona Public Health Agency (ASPB ) from 1994 to 2017. He is the coordinator of the Barcelona TB Research Unit (UITB) since 1995. He has also been a principal investigator on various national and international projects publishing more than 200 papers on the epidemiology of infectious diseases. He is the President of the UITB Foundation (fuiTB) since 2016