The prevention and control of infectious diseases is an important area of public health in Cyprus, Health Minister Michalis Damianos said on Sunday.

Speaking at a memorial for tuberculosis patients who died at the former Kyperounda Sanatorium, he said Cyprus ranks among the countries with the lowest annual recording of new tuberculosis cases worldwide, which he put down to prevention, timely and effective diagnosis and treatment of TB.

Nevertheless, he said 143 years after the discovery of the cause of TB and important developments in its diagnosis and therapy, tuberculosis continues to pose a threat to global health.

Increased immigration, poverty, socio-economic factors, institutional life, the Aids epidemic, multidrug-resistant and widespread resistant tuberculosis are the main causes for the increase in tuberculosis worldwide.

“Today we are not only honoring those who did not manage to defeat tuberculosis. We honour human dignity. The need of our society not to forget. Not to allow stigmatization. Let’s keep their memory alive. Not only with words, but with acts of solidarity, prevention, care and respect for every person who is being tested,” he concluded.

The first sanatorium in Cyprus operated in 1909 in Pedieos with only three beds. This was followed in 1926 by the Athalassa Sanatorium with a capacity of 50 beds.

The Sanatorium of Kyperounta operated in 1942 with 100 beds and was the largest, but also the most organised sanatorium in Cyprus.

In 1943, due to the reaction of the inhabitants of Kyperounda and Amiantos, who did not want the patients dying of tuberculosis to be buried in the cemeteries of their villages, but also due to the refusal of the relatives of the tuberculosis patients to receive their bodies, fearing social stigmatisation, a special cemetery was built for the tuberculosis patients who died in the sanatorium.

The cemetery was abandoned in the early 60s but has recently been renovated.

In 1974, the sanatorium was converted into the Kyperounda Regional Hospital, and in May 2019 it was renamed Troodos Hospital, when it was renovated and upgraded.