"Samahan niyo kaming gumawa ng kasaysayan ngayong World TB Day! (Join us in making history this World TB Day)," the DOH said in a social media post.
"Join us this March 16, 2024, 5:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., as we break the Guinness World Record for the Largest Human Lung formation! Ipakita natin ang ating determinasyon at pagkakaisa laban sa TB! (Let's show our determination and unity against TB)," the DOH added.
TB remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious killers. Each day, nearly 4000 lose their lives to TB and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.
Global efforts to combat TB have saved an estimated 63 million lives since the year 2000.
The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB, which opened the way towards diagnosing and curing this disease.
The theme of World TB Day 2024: "Yes! We can end TB!" conveys a message of hope that getting back-on-track to turn the tide against the TB epidemic is possible through high level leadership, increased investments and faster uptake of new World Health Organization recommendations.
Event partners include the World Health Organization Philippines, Philippine Business for Social Progress, Access TB Project, Stop TB Partnership, PhilCAT, USAID, fhi360, and the Bagong Pilipinas brand of governance.
It can be recalled that the current largest human image of an organ consists of 5,003 participants, achieved by Lung Care Foundation and Petronet LNG (both India) in New Delhi, India on December 23, 2017.
The participants were children from over 35 schools from New Delhi, who formed the image of a lung. They wanted to spread awareness about the issues caused by pollution and to promote a proposed cleaner fuel from Petronet LNG. (JCO/PIA-NCR)
