Cuba receives first award for control of TB
Campaign News | Wednesday, 24 March 2004
Disease has almost been eradicated in the island
Havana, March 24: More than two million people in the world die annually from pulmonary tuberculosis, 50,000 of them on the American continent, but, as in many things, Cuba is the exception with a rate of 7 cases per 100,000 people.
In recognition of this low level and its pioneer work in controlling TB, Cuba has been confered a special award on March 24th in New Delhi, India from the Stop TB Association on World Tuberculosis Day.
March 24 has been named World TB Day in commemoration of the date in 1884 when German Robert Koch identified the TB causal agent.
In spite of the knowledge and curability of this disease, it has reached epidemic proportions in the world, with eight million people contracting the disease each year.
The social and health development by Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution, when there were more than 60 cases of TB per 100,000 inhabitants, has placed it almost among those countries that are considered to have eliminated the disease (5 or fewer per 100,000).
