ORLANDO – The Orange County Health Department’s Tuberculosis, Refugee Health, and Immigration Health Program is teaming up with other agencies in Central Florida to highlight awareness about the prevention, transmission, and treatment of Tuberculosis as part of World TB Day 2012.

This year’s World TB Day event will include a partnership with the Health Care Center for the Homeless to provide free TB symptom screenings and education regarding community assistance programs and the importance of preventing tuberculosis in the community.  The event will be held on Friday, March 23, 2012, from 9 a.m., until 12 p.m. at the Health Care Center for the Homeless, 232 North Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, Florida, 32805.    

The worldwide theme for this year’s World TB Day, which is celebrated every year on March 24^th, is “Stop TB in my lifetime”. The slogan and theme encourage people all over the world, from the youngest to the oldest, to make an individual call for the elimination of TB, and say what changes they expect to take place in their lifetimes. World TB Day provides an opportunity to raise awareness about TB-related problems and solutions, and to support worldwide TB-control efforts.  The Orange County Health Department and its partners are committed to a world free of TB.

“In their lifetimes, today's children should expect to see a world where no one gets sick with TB. In their lifetimes, women and men should expect to see a world where no one dies from TB,” said Dr. Kevin M. Sherin, Director of the Orange County Health Department.

Each year across the country, public health and local communities unite to increase the awareness of the prevention, transmission, and treatment of Tuberculosis and the necessity for TB testing when certain risk factors are identified. This year’s activities are planned to draw attention to the availability of TB testing and treatment and to encourage individuals that live in communities showing a high incidence of TB to learn about this disease.  

In 2010, there were 11,182 TB cases reported in the US. During the year 2010, Florida ranked 7th in the nation and Orange County ranked 6th in the State of Florida for the number of active TB cases. 

For more information on World TB Day, visit: http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2012/