13 April 2022 I Geneva, Switzerland -- World TB Day 2022 was the biggest success to date! This year’s campaign highlighting the urgent need to increase funding for the fight against tuberculosis (TB) reached more than one billion people globally, ten times more than last year’s campaign. Online and social media played a significant role in this TB awareness-raising effort.
As every year, working in close collaboration with a broad spectrum of country and global partners and stakeholders, particularly the TB affected people and communities, the Stop TB Partnership developed the central theme of the campaign - #InvestToEndTB - calling for a crucial and substantial increase in funding to end the disease by 2030. Coupled with perennial underfunding, for the global TB response, the COVID-19 pandemic has severely disrupted the fight against TB, diverting precious medical, human, and financial resources away from providing lifesaving services such as access to diagnosis, treatment, and care to people suffering from TB.
This World TB Day, TB survivors and affected people and communities, TB champions and real-life country and global heroes, Heads of State, Ministers of Health, and countless partners and stakeholders voiced their strong support for the fight against TB, bringing much-needed attention to this deadly disease.
“We simply cannot continue to stand on the sidelines and watch while people around the world fall ill and die from a preventable and treatable disease,” said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. “We also cannot continue to accept what we had to accept for too many years—every year having less than 40% of the funding needed for the TB response. We will not be quiet anymore and this campaign is the beginning of united efforts to increase financial resources for TB.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Between 24 February and 31 March 2022, social media posts mentioning World TB Day and related campaign hashtags reached more than one billion screens across Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Read the full report here.
Landmarks in 44 cities were lit up in red as countries around the world showed their support to the fight to end TB, including Azerbaijan, Australia, Canada, China, Kazakhstan, Romania, the USA, Zimbabwe, and many more.
TB in children was spotlighted in a video interview that USAID Administrator Samantha Power, gave to the children's icon Hello Kitty. The video, published on 24 March, has been seen more than 22,000 times to date.
- An extraordinary virtual event on 24 March by Stop TB Partnership Ukraine brought together close to 100 courageous TB experts, healthcare workers, and activists from all regions of the country, despite the worrisome situation on the ground. Click here to watch the event.
- On the same day, the Canadian Government and Results Canada marked World TB Day in Ottawa by announcing a new financial commitment to the Stop TB Partnership’s TB REACH initiative. Click here for additional information.
- The WHO high-level TB Talk Show took place on 24 March with the participation of high-level representatives from the Stop TB Partnership, the Global Fund, USAID, Unitaid, Ministers of Health from Cambodia, Indonesia, Oman, South Africa, and Timor-Leste, as well as a TB survivor from South Africa. WHO's Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, sounded the alarm that "the world is running out of time to deliver on the commitments made by global leaders to end TB.”
- On 4 April, the Stop TB Partnership visited Azerbaijan, where Dr. Ditiu participated in a civil society-led international World TB Day conference held in Baku, highlighting the country's commitment in fighting TB by using innovative technologies. Click here to read more.
You can find details about all these events and much more on @StopTB social media channels.
Celebrities around the world supported World TB Day with dedicated social media posts and messages. These included musicians, artists and influencers like Bebe Cool, artist B-Flow, Mico the Best, Scherzade Shroff and Gerry Elsdon, among others.
The Stop TB Partnership’s video about TB has been seen 269,000 times since 23 March on @StopTB social media channels. Watch it now!
To prompt further efforts and investments in the fight against TB, the Stop TB Partnership ran a billboard ad with the World TB Day 2022 theme in the emblematic New York City's Times Square, where the Stop TB Partnership also spoke to New Yorkers about TB. TB was also visible at the heart of Tokyo's Cross Shinjuku Vision.
On the margins of World TB Day 2022, the Stop TB Partnership organized a press briefing that resulted in earned media coverage on all continents, putting the fight against TB at the top of the news agenda during World TB Day 2022 week. Click here to reach the report about the media coverage.
Additionally, an impressive selection of campaign highlights is plotted on the World TB Day map. Check out also our Wall of Fame, with more than 12,200 selected posts.
The Stop TB Partnership wishes to send an enormous THANK YOU to all our champions, partners, colleagues, and friends who worked hard to make the World TB Day 2022 campaign a resounding, worldwide success!
