The Florida Department of Health in Orange and Seminole Counties are teaming up to highlight awareness about the prevention, transmission, and treatment of Tuberculosis as part of World TB Day 2015. World TB Day, falling on March 24th each year, provides the opportunity to raise awareness about TB-related problems and solutions and to support worldwide TB-control efforts.

“TB continues to exist, people still get sick and die from this disease in the United States. We are committed to find, treat and help eliminate TB in our community,” said Dr. Swannie Jett, health officer for the Florida Department of Health in Seminole County.

This year’s theme is "Reach The 3 Million. Find. Treat. Cure TB.” The theme highlights the fact that though approximately 9 million people, worldwide, get sick with TB about 3 million people do not access the care they need to get treated. Anyone can get TB, and current efforts to find and treat latent TB infection and TB disease are not sufficient. Misdiagnosis of TB still exists and health care professionals often do not "think TB".

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s deadliest diseases:

• One third of the world’s population is infected with TB.
• In 2013, 9 million people around the world became sick with TB disease. There were over 1 million TB-related deaths worldwide.
• A total of 9,412 TB cases (a rate of 3.0 cases per 100,000 persons) were reported in the United States in 2014. A decrease of 2.2 percent from 2013.  
• In 2014, 595 TB cases were reported in Florida.

The Tuberculosis program consists of an outreach program and clinical services. The outreach component includes investigation and testing of those exposed to active cases of TB along with direct observed medication therapy of active TB cases. Clinical services provide the diagnosis and treatment of persons with active TB disease along with comprehensive case management of active cases and those suspected of having TB. Appropriate treatment is crucial to achieving the ultimate goal of eliminating TB as a public health problem in Florida.

For more information on World TB Day, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website at https://www.cdc.gov/tb/events/WorldTBDay/default.htm