KATHMANDU: World Tuberculosis Day is being observed across the globe today. The day is marked to raise public awareness that tuberculosis (TB) today remains an epidemic in most parts of the world, causing the deaths of nearly one-and-a-half million people each year, mostly in developing countries.

It commemorates the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch astounded the scientific community by announcing that he had discovered the cause of tuberculosis, the TB bacillus. At the time of Koch’s announcement in Berlin, TB was raging through Europe and the Americas, causing the death of one out of every seven people. Koch’s discovery opened the way towards diagnosing and curing TB.

TB remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer. Each day, nearly 4500 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall sick with this preventable and curable disease. Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 54 million lives since the year 2000 and reduced the TB mortality rate by 42%.

Likewise, there are 45,000 patients of TB in Nepal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO ).  Similarly, around 60,000 Nepalis are suffering from TB, National Tuberculosis Center informed. Medicine and treatment for the TB patients is cost free.