La Salle County Health Department promotes awareness of World TB Day on March 24

The La Salle County Health Department announced that World TB Day is Monday, March 24.

This is the 143rd anniversary of Robert Koch’s discovery of the TB bacillus. When Koch announced his discovery on March 24, 1882, in Berlin, Germany, tuberculosis was responsible for the death of 1 of every 7 people living in Europe and the U.S.

World TB Day 2025’s theme is, “Yes! We Can End TB: Commit, Invest, Deliver.” TB still is a life-threatening problem, and it affects people across the U.S. The theme’s design is to build public awareness that tuberculosis remains an epidemic in much of the world, causing the deaths of several million people each year.

The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to increased mortality from TB, decreased the number of people diagnosed and treated for TB, and dangerously affected the rights of people with TB. The general symptoms of TB include feeling sick or weak, weight loss, fever and night sweats. TB of the lungs causes the general symptoms plus coughing, sometimes producing blood and chest pain.

TB is caused by an organism called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. When a person with active TB disease coughs or sneezes, tiny particles containing M. tuberculosis may be expelled into the air. If another person inhales air that contains these particles, transmission from one person to another may occur. Not everyone infected with the TB germ, however, becomes sick; as a result, two TB-related conditions exist: latent TB infection and active TB disease, both of which are treatable and curable.

There are an estimated 13 million individuals in the U.S. with latent TB infection, and about 10% of these infected individuals will develop TB disease at some point in their lives.

Each day, more than 3,400 people lose their lives to TB, and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease. To find out more about TB, or to see about getting tested for a possible TB exposure, contact the La Salle County Health Department at 815-433-3366 or visit lasallecountyil.gov.