Nearly nine million people — more than 2.7million of them living in the Muslim countries — become sick with tuberculosis each year, and nearly amillion and a half of these people die from the disease. Some 600,000 of those deaths occur in these countries, which represent almost 30 percent of global tuberculosis infections. Five Muslim countries — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Bangladesh — are among the 22 nations classified by the World Health Organization as having the highest burden of tuberculosis.

On the eve of World Tuberculosis Day in 2009, 1.8 million youth from all over Afghanistan marched to express solidarity for tuberculosis patients and their families. This was the most successful contribution by a country in the Eastern Mediterranean region, and only one of the various events the Afghan Ministry of Public Health has been introducing as part of its educational program to raise awareness of tuberculosis in the country.

Tuberculosis has been threatening Afghanistan for decades. As the second highest tuberculosis- burdened country in the Eastern Mediterranean region, Afghanistan is also one of the 22 countries with the highest rates of tuberculosis in the world. Too many people die every year from this curable disease, yet tuberculosis is often treated as a taboo. At theMinistry of Public Health, we are convinced that education is crucial in stopping the spread of this silent killer.

In March of 2010, the united States Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which was signed into law by President Barack Obama. This historic legislation addressed some of the most pressing health care issues of our time. However, we still face many challenges providing health care to our nation's underserved populations. One of these challenges is our high level of tuberculosis (TB) infection, and the racial, ethnic, and economic disparities in the TB infection rates.

Tuberculosis is a disease of poverty affecting vulnerable groups and killing almost 4,000 people every day. Despite its prevalence, many people are unaware of the causes and risks. The disease is transmitted by the spread of germs from person- to-person through the air. The most common signs of the disease are coughing and chest pain, but symptoms can vary greatly if TB spreads from the lungs to other organs. The disease causes 1.4 million deaths per year worldwide. TB is the world's greatest killer of persons with HIV/AIDS.