Latin America & the Caribbean Edging Towards Eliminating Tuberculosis

[Judi Lynn]

By Grace Virtue

Grace Virtue, Ph.D., is Senior Advisor – Communications, ACTION Global Health Advocacy Partnership.


WASHINGTON DC, Mar 16 2018 (IPS) - Known as El Libertador throughout the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, Simón Bolívar was central to the battle for independence from Spanish rule in Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.

A less known fact is that Bolívar, the son of a wealthy Venezuelan creole family, died from tuberculosis (TB) on December 17, 1880, at age 47. His compatriot, renowned impressionist Cristobal Rojas, painted La Miseria in 1886, depicting the social conditions of the day that gave rise to TB. He died from the disease in 1890 at age 33.

Tuberculosis is an ancient disease. Results from a 2014 DNA study of remains in southern Peru suggest that human TB was present 6,000 years ago. This chronic familiarity of the disease no doubt makes it more difficult to generate the attention required to eradicate it from the human experience.

Observed as World TB Day each year, March 24 is the annual opportunity for advocates and interest groups to build public awareness about the disease, which killed 1.7 million people in 2017 and sickened more than 10 million. The date marks the anniversary of the announcement in 1882 by Robert Koch, a German physician and microbiologist, that he had discovered the cause of TB: the tubercle bacillus.

More:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2018/03/latin-america-caribbean-edging-towards-eliminating-tuberculosis/