At least one person is infected with tuberculosis every minute in Bangladesh: Experts

At least one person in Bangladesh is infected with tuberculosis every minute, experts said on Wednesday (22 March) in an event organised on the occasion of World Tuberculosis Day 2023.

The programme was jointly organised by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b).

Health Minister Zahid Maleque was present at the event as the chief guest.

"A parliamentary platform on TB is needed. I believe we will get many new ideas for eradicating TB from such a platform. All necessary steps will be taken in this regard," said Health Minister Zahid Maleque.

DGHS TB-L and ASP Line Director Dr Md Mahafuzer Rahman Sarker provided an overview of Bangladesh's current TB scenario, noting that the NTP and partners have made remarkable strides in controlling TB over the past few decades and helped save approximately 2.3 million lives since 2012. -2021.

"Deaths from TB have reduced from 45 deaths per 100,000 in 2015 to 25 in 2021. Additionally, TB services have been decentralised," he added.

He described the major shift in TB treatment in Bangladesh from long-duration painful injectable regimens to the newer, shorter all-oral drug-resistant TB regimens.

However, despite these concerted efforts, Bangladesh still remains at risk

"In 2021, about 375,000 individuals were infected with TB, of whom 42,000 died. This means that one life was unfortunately lost every twelve minutes in 2021," the expert added.

He also stressed the importance of case detection, notification, access to TB care services, ensuring TB preventive measures, political commitment, and a multi-sectoral response toward achieving the NTP's goal of ending TB in Bangladesh by 2035.

icddr,b Executive Director Dr Tahmeed Ahmed emphasised how multi-sectoral stakeholder engagement and the support of political leaders have accelerated efforts to end TB in Bangladesh.

 "We have come a long way in combating TB with the initiative of the government and through the assistance of USAID's ACTB program, but we still need more efforts to reduce drug-resistant TB and childhood TB. Let us all be optimists and end TB together," he said.