World Tuberculosis Day
Next: March 24, 2027
An old disease we can end.
The story
Where it comes from
On 24 March 1882 the German physician Robert Koch told the Berlin Physiological Society that he had found the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. Using a new staining method on samples from patients, he had seen the germ for the first time, which proved that TB was an infectious disease and opened the way to diagnosing and curing it. In 1982, a century later, the global health community began marking 24 March as World TB Day.
How it's celebrated
The World Health Organization and national health services use the day to raise awareness of TB and to step up efforts to end it. Health workers, former patients and campaigners share their stories and call for the funding and care that TB still needs. Anyone can help by learning about the disease and by supporting people who are being tested or are partway through their treatment.
Did you know
- Koch published his findings three weeks after the lecture, on 10 April 1882.
- In 1884 he set out 'Koch's postulates', the tests for proving that a germ causes a disease, still basic to the study of infections.
- Koch received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905 for his work on tuberculosis.
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