Wednesday is World Tuberculosis (TB) Day and this week we’ll be talking about how you can help beat this disease through MASSIVEGOOD.

Tuberculosis is an ancient killer that has no place in the 21^st Century. Thankfully, there is plenty of good news to go around and World TB day will help explain what little individual effort is needed to finally stop TB.

What is TB?

Around 200 million people become sick with TB in their lifetime and 1.8 million people died in 2008 – a real public health emergency. The pandemic is the most virulent in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa and is a major killer of HIV-positive people. TB is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV in Africa. Worldwide, one in four TB deaths is HIV-related.

Although it is found around the globe in both developed and developing countries, TB is widely considered to be a disease of poverty with appalling consequences on the economic well-being of the poorest countries.

What can we do?

TB is both preventable and curable thanks to effective treatments. Programs with very high success rates have saved lives - 36 million people have been cured and it is estimated that 8 million deaths have been avoided since 1995.

So why do we need a World TB Day?

TB is not beat yet. It a contagious airborne disease and new forms of TB are emerging that are “resistant” to existing drugs. Drug-resistance occurs because of low-quality drugs or when patients don't adhere to their strict treatment regimes – these new strains are difficult and expensive to treat. And they are spreading rapidly.

There is an urgent need to act not only to save millions of lives but because reasonable investments today will prevent us from having to make huge investments in the future. World TB Day is a great opportunity to raise awareness around TB and to get everyday citizens involved.

You too can help. How? Through MASSIVEGOOD, a $2 micro-contribution next time you book your plane ticket will save lives threatened by TB. Check out the MASSIVEGOOD website for more information on how you can help and stay tuned for more info on World TB Day.

For more info, please visit the Stop TB Partnership: http://www.stoptb.org/